In an exclusive interview with BR Research, a research wing of Business Recorder, the Federal Finance Minister, Shaukat Tarin, indirectly supported the distinct possibility of the annulment of the Reko Diq contract by the Balochistan government, a Canadian-Chilean joint venture.
According to him, the former government had agreed to a 40 billion dollars contract for 30 years on the agreement that export of mined copper and gold from the project would be in the form of ore. Export revenue, the Minister added would be in the vicinity of 500 billion dollars if smelting of that ore is carried out in the country.
While these statistics no doubt would make mouth water in the corridors of the federal finance ministry, as well as the provincial government, both severely strapped for cash, yet the rate of return on any project alone is unfortunately not a yardstick for its successful implementation as the productive sectors, operating in the length and breadth of Pakistan, have learnt in recent years. Security remains a major input for productive activity to prosper in any country or region.
In Pakistan, the number of law and order problems has alarmingly increased with the government unable to check the rise in the number of suicide attacks in the major cities. The security situation is considerably worse in Balochistan and has been for the longest possible time attributed to major grievances of the Baloch nationalists against what they refer to 'as unfair treatment' by the federal government.
Balochistan is the richest province in the country, in terms of natural resources including gas, copper and gold, but the least developed, even after 62 years of the country's independence. Often cited is the fact that gas from the province was provided to the Balochistan capital, Quetta, several decades after it was provided to other provinces. The list of Baloch complaints also include the issue of inadequate gas royalty, missing persons, military operations and the establishment of cantonments.
In this context, the Aghaaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan package must be hailed. However, the government must begin to deliver on key components of the package, which include granting amnesty to all Baloch nationalists, bringing to an end all operations and heeding Baloch concerns over the planned construction of three new cantonments in Balochistan.
Moreover, it is time for the government to begin negotiations with the estranged Baloch leaders in an effort to ensure that everyone is on the same page, for that way alone lies the resolution of a brewing crisis that may have implications for the entire country if pending issues are not resolved in a timely manner.
And last, but not least, Islamabad is required to fully appreciate the fact that where there is mining, there is poverty and indigenous people, and the map of mining interests, the map of indigenous people and the map of poverty all line up perfectly.
The federal government is also required to appreciate another fact that most of the mining projects in the developing world follow the protocol of the International Labour Organisation's Convention 169 (ILO 169), which guarantees the right of indigenous people to exercise control over the form of development that occurs in their traditional territory. In the case of Balochistan, the Sardars and the middle class of Baloch are the key stakeholders.
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