The treasury and opposition senators, belonging to Balochistan on Monday joined hands against what they called continuous discrimination in allocation of job quota for the province.
Senators Raza Mohammad Raza (PkMAP), Liaquat Ali Bangalzai, Pari Gul Agha (PML), Mouhim Khan Baloch, Safdar Abbasi (PPPP) and Professor Ghafoor Ahmed (MMA) wanted to know why the people of the province had not been appointed in trade missions abroad.
Interestingly, there was not even a single commercial representative taken from the province.
They said that this attitude towards Balochistan was adding to the sense of deprivation among the people of the province. The opposition senators chanted slogans of shame, shame.
"Musharraf had announced that his government will do away with the sense of deprivation among the smaller provinces. Is this the way to end deprivation?" Raza asked.
He said that they were not begging, but raising their voice for abiding by the quota, allocated for the federating units.
Bangalzai, quoting a press report said that because of unemployment, a man at Gwadar committed suicide on Tuesday, at a time, when, 28 people were given jobs, among these none was from Balochistan.
Treasury Senator Pari Gul Agha and Mouhim Baloch said that problems in the province were compounding, the government was not following the quota system. They alleged in certain cases, people get job, pretending to be hailing from Balochistan.
Speaking for the Commerce and Trade Minister, Investment and Privatisation Minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh assured the House that he would convey their concern to the minister.
In a written reply, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan informed the Senate that the government was working on a proposal to send more commercial attaches to Germany, Russia, Nigeria, India, China and Indonesia.