Balochistan: Lawyers to challenge Gwadar fencing issue, Baloch senator says ‘safe city project’ unacceptable
QUETTA: Lawyers in Balochistan have decided to challenge Pakistan’s government’s decision to fence Gwadar in the name of security.
The Quetta Bar Association’s Vice Chairman Muneer Kakad said on Saturday a Balochistan-wide strike will be held and the decision will be challenged in the Balochistan High Court.
Mr Kakar announced this while addressing a joint press conference with the Balochistan Bar Council.
He was quoted as saying, “The Centre thinks it will control Gwadar once it has been fenced but we won’t let that happened. You can’t seal a city for its protection.”
Kakad also added that people in Gwadar don’t have access to clean drinking water yet funds are being spent on fencing the city.
Earlier an opposition senator Mir Kabir Mohammad Shahi has blamed the federal and provincial governments of hatching a conspiracy to “separate Gwadar from Balochistan” by fencing the port town in the name of Gwadar Safe City project.
During a press conference, he said, “A fence is being erected around Gwadar in the name of the Safe City project through which the city will be divided into two parts. Those people who regularly go inside the city will be given a card without which no one could enter the city.”
He said the plan to bring Gwadar under the control of Centre was initiated during Musharraf regime and now the federal government was implementing it.
He maintained that initially an attempt was made to declare the coastal belt of Balochistan the property of the federation through an ordinance and later islands of Balochistan and Sindh were handed over to the federal government through another ordinance.
“The ordinance on the islands of Sindh and Balochistan was not discussed in the Senate,” he said, adding that the “move to hand over Gwadar to the federal government” in the name of security was interference in provincial [Balochistan’s] affairs.
Mr Mohammad Shahi said that Balochistan was not someone’s estate to hand over its resources to the federation through a piece of paper. “We will not allow the looting of Balochistan’s resources through a presidential ordinance.”
He said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor existed due to Gwadar but the development of the port city had been ignored.
“The people of Gwadar are compelled to purchase drinking water at the rate of Rs2, 500 per tanker,” the senator said, adding that there was no permanent arrangement of water supply in the city.
Jam Kamal Khan CM Balochistan, however, dubbed as fencing of Gwarar as ‘additional security’ saying, ‘barbed wire has been laid in some areas to provide additional security.’
