Secretary General of Jamhori Watan Party (JWP), Rauf Khan Sasoli has complained that the people of Balochistan are not being accommodated in the ongoing oil and gas exploration activities being conducted by the PPL and other companies while majority of Balochistan areas are still deprived of natural gas.
"Are people of our area so useless that they could not have been appointed even as watchmen on the field?" Sasoli questioned. It is worth mentioning here that the newly adopted 'Petroleum Policy 2009' envisages giving priority to the appointment of 'locals' in designated projects.
"The meaning of locals in the policy are those people who are living within the vicinity of running projects or in nearby and adjacent areas", he explained. Sasoli also criticised the exploration companies for not spending the agreed five percent amount on the social welfare of the area people. He added that he was making a humble request to the concerned authorities to fulfil their commitments before initiating the projects.
He further said the people of the area had never created hurdles in the working of the companies and questioned that why they should not take up arms if they were continuously ignored as was happening in Sindh and Southern Punjab. He said, "Exploring company has no right to do work in our areas if it cannot keep everyone happy at the same time", Sasoli said that government neither implemented on its Balochistan package not jobs were provided to the graduates and post graduates.
Sasoli said that the exploration companies to treat the people of the areas as partners in the project and refrain from exploiting them. People in interior Balochistan have become increasingly hostile to hydrocarbon exploration and production companies in the recent years.