The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination criticised on Tuesday the gas and oil companies working in Balochistan for not providing jobs to the locals according to the rules laid down.
The meeting chaired by Mir Ahmedan Bugti reviewed the last 10 years’ performance of the oil and gas companies in Dera Bugti, their development, expenditure and audit reports and their employment rules.
The committee members, at the very outset, voiced concerns over the fact that the jobs being given to locals were far less than the prescribed number.
The committee termed it a great injustice to the people of the province which has been providing gas and oil to the country for over half a century.
Pakistan People’s Party lawmaker Nasir Ali Shah from Balochistan told the committee about the prevailing sense of deprivation among people of the province. He complained that the companies were hiring the locals only for the positions of peons and drivers.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Javed Hashmi said the military operations and injustices done to the people of Balochistan were breeding separatists
“Had I been a resident of Balochistan, I too, perhaps, would have been one of those who are demanding independence because successive military operations have pushed the people of the province to the brink”, Hashmi added. He cited the treatment meted out to the Bengalis that led to the fall of Dhaka in 1971. He said concrete steps were needed to remove the trust deficit between the government and the people of Balochistan. Ahmed Bugti observed that none of the 17 general managers of the Oil and Gas Development Company were from Balochistan.
