Castigating the federal government for not implementing development schemes, members of the Balochistan Assembly on Friday said Islamabad was making lip service regarding the development needs of Balochistan.
Speaking in the assembly session that was chaired by Deputy Speaker Syed Matiullah Agha, the members said instead of releasing Rs 40 billion allocated in the federal PSDP for the province, only Rs 9 billion had been given in the current fiscal year. Senior Minister Maulana Abdul Wasay of the JUI-F regretted the federal government’s failure to come up with its commitments made with Balochistan for completion of development projects, saying the promises could not be fulfilled despite a lapse of five years. He said president, prime minister and federal ministers had assured the province of keeping their promises for not cutting its funds in the PSDP, but none were kept. Wasay said the meagre release of funds caused delay in completion of projects and eventually the funds of the province had lapsed.
Commenting on judiciary, the senior minister said had the chief justice of Pakistan taken suo motu notice of non-implementation of resolutions passed by the Balochistan Assembly on part of the Centre, the people in the province would have been more prosperous. He said they were not achieving the objectives for which Pakistan was formed, adding that he did not see their goals being achieved in the future as well, as thousands of people were being killed and the country had already faced a bitter experience in the shape of disintegration of Pakistan in 1971. Rejecting allegations of corruption against provincial ministers, the JUI-F leader claimed that record development had been achieved during by the provincial government in the province.
He said some people could not endure witnessing “our vibrant performance because they have lost their political wisdom using Supreme Court’s shoulder against us”. The JUI-F leader also criticised nationalists and said they boycotted last general elections under the pretext of Pervez Musharraf, but this time they had no other excuse to boycott the upcoming election and were resultantly trying to drag the ministers to courts under false allegations.
