Balochistan’s NFC share does not cater to critical development issues, says Qudoos Bizenjo

KARACHI: The Balochistan Assembly’s speaker Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo has said that his province is the largest constituting nearly half of country’s total land mass but the budget in the NFC Award is insufficient for resolving its issues and until 2011, it was hard to even pay salaries to the government employees from the available funds “My home town of Awaran, was badly affected from militancy and natural disasters, but none of the issues were resolved due to paucity of budgetary allocation,” he said.

Bizenjo, who is also leader of the ruling Balochistan Awami Party, spoke at the Karachi Press Club at its its ‘meet the press’ programme on Monday, on a variety of issues from previous government’s performance to the current law and order situation in the country’s largest province.

The Balochistan Assembly’s speaker Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo claimed that the separatist groups in the Balochistan have been weakened to great extent because of the successful military operation and the surrender and subsequent mainstreaming of a large number of its supporters, on Monday said peace has been restored across the province due to the sacrifices rendered by the people and the security forces.

Criticizing the previous governments of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party for only focusing on Punjab and Sindh to appease their vote bank, Bizenjo said the mainstream national parties totally ignored Balochistan in the development projects and held them responsible for its backwardness. He said the current government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is sincerely making earnest efforts to redress the province’s reservations and deprivations and helping the provincial government resolve the issues. To a question, the speaker said he is against the word ‘angry leaders’ for those killing the innocent and the law enforcers. “They are terrorists and India is funding their leaders in Europe,” to off set the Gwadar port project. “But due to the security operation, India’s nefarious conspiracy has been foiled.”

About the ruling BAP, Bizenjo said the positive steps taken by provincial government, have gained public trust across the province. “Before BAP, only Balochi and Pashtoon nationalists and religious parties were active in politics,” he said. “My father remained associated with the PML-N for more than three decades and I was in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, but when a group of politicians interested in national politics decided to form a party, I joined it to fill the vacuum of a mainstream political party representing all ethnicities, tribes and sects”.

Appreciating the sacrifices of journalists in Balochistan, the speaker said the province was considered dangerous for practicing journalism until few years ago. He also criticized the media persons sitting in Islamabad and Karachi for not potraying the real situation of the province.