Chairman Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari along with CM Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah visited Thar Coal Block II and monitored the mining operations, construction of 2X330MW power plant, and the community development work done by Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) in a public private partnership model in Tharparkar.
Addressing a public gathering attended by scores of nearby villages and towns, Bilawal said, "Thar boasts the best part of the positive change that is going to happen to Pakistan soon. The public-private partnership project, having Sindh Government, Engro, and other Pakistani and international companies as shareholders, is rendering results as envisioned by Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto herself."
"Balochistan and Punjab are rich in resources as well, but their resources remain untapped to date. We have tapped the natural coal reserves in Tharparkar but we all, politicians, civil society and media persons, have done injustice by not informing Pakistan of the economic revolution that is in the making in Thararkar."
Bilawal also enumerated the socioeconomic offshoots of the Thar Block II projects by saying, "We are working in the sectors of education, health, promotion of local handicrafts, handholding of local businesses and the landscape-changing Biosaline Agriculture, which I did not just see but experienced by having in lunch the vegetables grown there. Similarly, fish farming in Tharparkar has also been initiated and pilot project has been successful."
Speaking about the importance of the project, Bilawal said, "Thar is the answer to the objection raised against the project, which questions its benefit to local population, as 70pc of the project employment is from Tharparkar's local communities." Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah said, "What we are witnessing today, this massive economic activity in Tharparkar, is realization of the dream of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, who has not only come here in 1995 but also initiated the project."
"Unfortunately, the subsequent governments not just ignored the project, but also tried to change its course so it fails," the chief minister lamented. "But we are on track again," he assured, "and the people of Thar will change Pakistan's fate." Bilawal handed over the key to the owner of a house in New Senhri Dar Resettlement Village, a model village planned and established for the resettlement of the villages which need to move due to mine expansion in Block II.
Bilawal visited different projects run by the Thar Foundation, a non-profit established by the companies for socioeconomic uplift of the area, including Marvi Clinic, Thar Foundation Primary Schools, TCF Jiwan Das Campus, Model House at New Senhri Dars Resettlement Village, and the biosaline agriculture project.
During the ceremony, Cricketer-turned-social worker Shahid Khan Afridi also handed over to the Thar Foundation a cheque of Rs 100 million for as donation for establishment of the planned state-of-the-art Thar Foundation Hospital in Islamkot. Earlier, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SECMC and Thar Foundation, Shamsuddin Ahmed Shaikh briefed the delegation on progress of the Thar Block II's mining, power and different schemes of social development focused on uplift of the Thari communities, the 'real stakeholders of Thar Coal', as SECMC refers to them.
Shaikh said that they have achieved a depth of 125meters and need to go about 20meters more to touch coal, which will be by the end of this year. He said that the mining and power projects were about 4 months ahead of their committed schedule and, that's why, they will give Pakistan a reason to cherish soon, by transmitting first electron at the end of the current year.
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