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to build 35-kilometre-long road?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
By Hasnain Qaisrani
DERA GHAZI KHAN: The work on the inter-provincial Taunsa-Musa Khail Road has been suspended for over one-and-a-half years while a portion of only around two kilometres of the road could be built since its approval two years ago.
Meanwhile, some Buzdar tribesmen have been on a hunger strike since October 28 in the Fazla Kachh town in the DG Khan tribal area against the suspension of the work, demanding immediate resumption and completion of the road project. The tribesmen announced that their strike would continue till work on the road was resumed.
The Pakistan Public Works Department (PPWD), Balochistan, had on the orders of the then President Gen Pervez Musharraf approved the road between Drug (Musa Khail) in Balochistan and Gulki (Taunsa Sharif) in the Punjab via Fazla Kachh in the year 2007 at an estimated cost of Rs 478.061 million. The 35-kilometre-long road passing through mountains of Suleman Ranges was to be completed in two years by the end of this year as per the PC-1. The relevant department had paid the contractor Rs 130 million after the work on the road was launched in the end of 2007. With the start of the work, the Buzdar and Qaisrani tribesmen had taken a sigh of relief in the hope that their dream of a road was being realised.
When contacted on telephone, the executive engineer of the Pakistan Public Works Department, Balochistan, told this scribe that the department had got only a meager amount of Rs 130 million, which was causing an extraordinary delay in the completion of the road. He said the work on the road would be resumed soon after the provision of rest of the funds. He claimed that over 7-kilometre track of the project had already been built.
The local tribesmen said they had assured the contractor that they would facilitate him regarding the logistics, labourers engaged with the project, availability of water and other necessary services so that he and his staff may not face inconvenience.
The same issue was also brought to the notice of the department bigwigs, but to no avail, they said and alleged that the project was deliberately being delayed for reasons best known by the authorities.
This road would provide a new link between the Punjab and Balochistan provinces on the Karachi-Peshawar Indus Highway at Taunsa Sharif. The residents of Dera Ghazi Khan, Taunsa Sharif, Kot Adu, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Multan, Rajanpur, Bahawalpur and the rest of the areas have to move through Dera Ismail Khan district of the NWFP to reach Zhob, Dukki, Loralai and some other districts of Balochistan, which is a lengthy route.
However, with the construction of this road, the distance between Zhob and Taunsa Sharif would be reduced to 220 kilometres from over 500 kilometres. This road will also promote trade ties, social and cultural activities between the ignored and backward areas of the Punjab and Balochistan besides improving the living standards of the tribesmen.
A large number of Baloch tribes settled in the DG Khan tribal belt would also be able to enter and explore new vistas of life through this road. So far, the areas of four major Baloch tribes, namely Buzdars, Qaisranis, Khosas and Lunds, are deprived of metalled roads even in this high-tech age.
A local elder, Allah Bakhsh Buzdar, alleged that local tribal chiefs and influential persons were opposing construction of the road as they did not want the poor masses and the area to develop for their vested interests. He said the tribal chiefs were settled in Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Lahore and Islamabad and their association with the area people was just to the extent of getting votes. He also blamed the local elected representatives for not taking up the issue in the national and provincial assemblies. He feared that due to the extraordinary delay, the cost of this scheme could jump up and that would be an extra burden on the national exchequer.
Another elder deplored that a public welfare project sanctioned by an Army general had been stopped by the democratically-elected government. PML-Q MNA Khawja Sheeraz Mehmood said that he would take up the issue with the government for timely release of funds. He said that bureaucratic hurdles were affecting the pace of the work and the residents were facing inconvenience. He said that he would submit a resolution in the National Assembly on the delay in the road project.
The Buzdar tribe chief and PML-Q MPA, Sardar Fateh Muhammad Buzdar, denied the allegation that the tribal chiefs were delaying the road project. He claimed that he had got approved the Mangrotha-Fazla-Phugla Road at an estimated cost of Rs 350 million when then the Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi had visited Bharti. He said that after the release of the funds, his political rivals had approached the MNA of Zhob (Balochistan) who got this road approved when the then president Gen Pervez Musharraf had visited Zhob in 2007. Then, he said, the Punjab government had withdrawn the funds and dropped the scheme after it was taken up by the federal government through the Pakistan Public Works Department, Balochistan.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
