Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province, and it is home to eighty different kinds of God-given resources, but it is also plagued by crises.
The province encompasses approximately 347,190 square kilometers of land, accounting for 43.6 percent of the total area of the country.
The land is abundant in minerals, high mountains, friendly valleys, natural resources, and a beautiful shoreline. The province’s lack of benefits from its riches, however, is astonishing.
The province’s indigenous people receive nothing but deadly roads, barbarous leaders, underdevelopment, and the worst educational system. For its people, the healthcare system remains a dream. Progression being a utopian dream, the inhabitants have so far procrastinated on legislative and primary rights to perpetuate.
Water scarcity, unemployment, poor education, a non-existent healthcare system, and drug culture are all part of the basic crisis. The government has repeatedly failed to take timely action and eliminate the current problem.
Concurrently, the province is home to a number of projects that will be known as game-changers for the country, the most prominent of which is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The project started on April 20, 2015, with a $46 billion dollar agreement, which is equal to 20% of Pakistan’s annual GDP. Even so, divulging the truth has never benefited the people of Balochistan.
Aside from that, the so-called government has recently made a new Reko diq agreement for self-interest. The main goal of this agreement was to get rid of the World Bank’s $11 billion penalties imposed on Pakistan.
The company plans to invest billions of dollars in one of the world’s largest gold and copper deposits in Reko Dik.
According to the new agreement, Barrick owns 50% of the company, and the remaining 50% is divided, with 25% going to the federal government and 25% going to the Balochistan government, which is completely unfair to the people of Balochistan. Because the announced percentage is often not awarded or is secretly preyed upon by the powerful class.
Apart from that, people in Balochistan are held back in every way, whether it is their right to resources, education, business, agriculture, industries, and on and on.
What’s more, Reko dik is located in a small town in the Chagai District. Despite multibillion-dollar projects, the people of Chagai lack basic infrastructure.
It is a mineral-rich area, but only for the capitalist class. According to estimates, 75% of people in Chagai live below the poverty line, and the literacy rate is 30%. Schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure are in dilapidation.
According to the Mines Act of 1923, each mining firm is required to work for the betterment of the local citizens, which includes health, education, and other infrastructures, but the ironic part is that no one pays attention.
Every era’s so-called government has only seen Balochistan’s resources, not its residents. They do not require a prosperous and luxurious life, but rather their fundamental rights.
People who are involved in violating the rights of Baloch people may not be caught in this world, but surely in the afterlife.
Sana Ullah Dashti