ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar here Tuesday called for providing maximum employment opportunities and constitutional rights to the people of Gawadar district in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
CPEC was a project of national significance and all the provinces, including Balochistan, should benefit from it, Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Sardar Akhtar Mengal said while presiding the seminar on CPEC organized to discuss matters relating to the Gawadar Port.
“We want peace and development in Balochistan. Priority should be given to local people in job opportunities arisen due to CPEC,” he said, adding education facilities should also be provided to the Balochs at their dootsteps.
Mengal said the mega project was tipped to change the fate of the people of entire country. The people of Balochistan wanted their due share in development.
The Baloch youth should be imparted education and technical skills and for the purpose technical colleges and training centers should be established in the province, he stressed.
He said his party demanded equal participation of Baloch people in all development projects, including CPEC and Gawadar Port.
Gas, electricity and other basic necessities were needed to improve the life standard of common man in Balochistan, he added.
He said the people of Gawadar, who would be affected due to the port’s development, should be equipped with skills under a strategy. They mainly earned their livelihood from fisheries and the government must arrange training for their capacity building, he aded.
Balochistan National Party (BNP) General Secretary Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini highlighted the problems, including shortage of clean drinking water, power supply and lack of development, being faced by the Gawadar people.
He said his party supported the CPEC and other development projects being carried out in Gawadar. He, however, stressed that local people from Makran Division should be given employment opportunities in the mega projects.
He demanded the government to provide free education and health facilities, besides a special package giving exemption in taxes and utility bills for the poverty-stricken people of Gawadar.
Senator Jamaldini said the western route of CPEC should be completed on priority and the people of the under-developed areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhaw (KP), Punjab and Balochistan should be provided benefit of the project.
Eminent lawyer Asma Jhangir said all the provinces, including Balochistan had constitutional right to get equal opportunities in development and employments.
Director General, South Asian Strategic Studies Institute (SASSI) Maria Sultan said the project would help promote global trade.
Anchorperson Saleem Safi highlighted the strategic and economic aspects of the mega project and termed it a game changer.
Journalists Iftikhar Ahmad, Asma Sherazi, Hamid Mir and others also addressed the seminar, which was attended by intellectuals, lawyers and writers from across the country.
