BALOCHISTAN ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS MISPLACED

The Balochistan Assembly, in recent days, passed two controversial resolutions which are not in the interests of the people of Balochistan. It may be in the interest of the Ministers and a group of vested interests but not the poor people of Balochistan who are denied basic amenities for the past six decades. Representative democracy failed to defend the legitimate interests of the poor people of Balochistan as MPAs and Ministers served their personal interests and the people did not share the fruits of development or the Government spending. The first resolution passed in support of the smugglers and terrorists as they are the real beneficiaries of the smuggled luxury vehicles from Afghanistan which were used in terrorist activities and committing serious offences against the civil society, if not the State. In case of the ordinary people and fond of pomp and show by riding luxury vehicles smuggled from Afghanistan should pay the taxes which are insignificant comparing the value of the luxury vehicles. The ordinary people should pay the taxes to the public exchequer and regularize their registration and got a valid registration number plate. In such a way, the own will be accountable in case of an accidents and committing other offences and police could trace him and his vehicle through the registration number plates. There is no room in the civil society to allow luxury vehicles, all smuggled from Afghanistan, to ply the vehicles on the roads and without any registration number plate or no tax paid to the State. The Members should withdraw their resolution as it was totally uncalled for and misplaced in the given circumstances. More than 60,000 smuggled vehicles could not be regularized without paying taxes and proper registration of vehicles with the concerned authorities. The second resolution pertains to building desalination plant around Gwadar to beat back the water crisis in the port city. It is also totally uncalled for and misplaced as desalination plants should be built as last resort when the Government and society used the surface water is available in the seasonal rivers around Gwadar. The Ankara Kaur Dam was wrongly designed and built by dishonest NESPAK engineers and architect. As per original design, the dam should be silted up in half a century. But the dam is filled with silt in 15 years. It is fault of engineering and nature should not be blamed. If it stored more water with proper designing, there would have been no water crisis in Gwadar. Dr Fauzia Marri had rightly opposed the idea and resolution as there are five or six sites are available for building dams storing more water, more than the need of the port city. First the Ankara Kaur Dam should be desilted and raised on the pattern of Mangla Dam; more dams should be built on River Sawar and River Dasht in the downstream near Sunt-i-Sar which should be used for water storage for Gwadar city only or a green belt around Gwadar. Balochistan Coast is rich in water resources and that can be tapped to meet the future needs of the port cities of Gwadar, Pasni, Ormara, Jiwani and other smaller fishing stations. It is a wrong idea to build desalination plants at this stage before using or tapping the available surface water in the seasonal rivers. There are six major seasonal rivers; one of them is perennial, available for storing water for commercial and agricultural use. The State of Pakistan had already wasted more than Rs six billion on building desalination plants during the past seven years. Not a single drop of water is provided to the people of Gwadar from the desalination plants built by the BDA and others. The Prime Minister should immediately dispatch his Inspection Team to probe the massive corruption of billions by the Ministers and officials in building desalination plants around Gwadar for the past seven years. Corruption should not be condoned and the corrupt should be taken to task for embezzling the resources of the poor people of Balochistan.