People of Balochistan have foremost right over Gwadar port: Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif has said that people of Balochistan have first and foremost right over the Gwadar port, adding that they should be permitted to harvest all or most of its remuneration.

While addressing a conference on Gwadar, the former two-time prime minister vowed that he will pay special attention for betterment of Baloch community.

He claimed that the development and progress of the region was the focus of his party’s manifesto, adding that the Gwadar project was the brainchild of his previous regime. In his view, the project will be completed within the PML-N’s next tenure in the power.

He also explained the geographical and economic importance of the port, saying that the construction of the coastal highway linking it to Karachi was a vital part of the plan.

The PML-N president also took credit for formulating plans to construct Gwadar port in 1992 and develop the region.

He observed, “The highway, which was built at a cost of Rs21 billion, is now a national asset worth Rs220 billion, on which the government was now thinking of issuing bonds”

He, however, said that the money should be spent on constructing new motorways instead of utilizing the amount raised against the bonds to meet the budget deficit.

Lashing out the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), the leader of the opposition party lamented that national assets like motorways were being damaged through negligence in the present government’s era.

Nawaz Sharif while hitting out at the National Highway Authority (NHA), said that it had no other task except to loot and plunder the exchequer. In his view, this is the reason the network of motorways was in the decaying condition in the country.

He noted, “I want to grant Gwadar a Hong Kong-like status of international acclaim, with similar laws and economic system in place to enable it to play an efficient role in the development of not only Balochistan, but the whole country”.

He was of the opinion that the port’s natural deep-sea could play significant role in exporting resources to the rest of the world to economically and socially benefit the whole country, as the region is brimming with oil, gas and other natural resources.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jul 3 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.