Naseebullah Khan
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham LincolnThe Chief Minister Balochistan and his team are well aware of playing with the sentiments of the people of the province by using social media through negative propaganda and political artifice. In a recent publicity stunt of a newly constructed Sabzal road Quetta upon whose publicity, a mushroom amount of government exchequer has been spent by naming it as emerging Balochistan. Such kinds of stratagem may throw dust in the eyes of the people but cannot alter the ground realities which the people of this province have been suffering. There is a dire need to make a postmortem of the deceiving slogan of emerging Balochistan. First, come to the administrative blunders of this new emerging Balochistan of new Pakistan and new Medina state. Since the past three years of this government has assumed charge, the Jam government has lapsed 100 billion Rupees of development. The 2021_22 budget deficit has increased to 84 billion which is the highest in the history of the province. In the PSDP of the budget of 2021_22, the government accommodated 40 departments in which 19 departments have a less cumulative total of 6.76 percent of the total allocation. In these departments, the mines and minerals department share was 0.79 percent, women development department o.35 percent, environment 0.11 percent, food 0.20 percent, population welfare 0.05 percent and social welfare department’s allocation was 0.52 percent. The saddest reality is the diversion of 60 percent of development towards concrete development whereas the focus on human development is equal to none. This pathetic allocation indicates the priorities of the government of the emerging Balochistan.While necropsying the situation of education and health in Jam Kamal’s emerging Balochistan, the posture is dismal. 47 percent of children in the province are out of school whereas the literacy rate of the province is lowest in all provinces which stands at 45 percent. When it comes to district Lasbella where the Jam family has been the sole representative since 1970__ the literacy is 37 percent with a gender parity index of 50 percent. The irony is that despite occupying the slot of CMship of the province three times by the Jam family, the situation of education in their own district is a slap on the proponents of the deceiving slogan of emerging Balochistan. The sorry state of affairs of the health sector is theworst than the education sector. The Province is in grip of pathetic healthcare indicators__where 0.4 million children of under 5 are age in are in acute malnutrition, 16 percent children acute undernourished. More, 52 percent of children are stunted and 40 percent are underweight. The gloomy conditions with respect to maternal mortality are alarming which 298/100000, which is the highest in the country. His own district of the CM is the victim of the myriad of diseases which is the 2nd most-affected district in the province with regard to Hepatitis. The lack of doctors in the province has been providing fuel to the issue. There are 4011 registered doctors of which 491 are dentists and 1057 surgeons for 12.3 million Population. Which means one doctor is available for 3000 people. This piteous situation has not opened the eyes of Mr. Jam Kamal whose priorities have been focused on concreted development schemes. The social indicators in the province have reached to its worst where 85 percent have no access to pure water. The province has been facing scarcity of water, shortage of electricity and more than 90 percent of the province has no has facility while according to the NEPRA, 2/3, houses are without electricity. Notwithstanding, 71 percent of the population are living below the poverty line whereas unemployment has been increasing with rocket speed. 65% population are facing food insecurity. Estimatedly, 25000 students graduate annually in the province and only 2000 get jobs. Dr. Hazffez Pasha observes that Balochistan is the only province whose per person capita has reduced. But on the other side, Balochistan is emerging. Fuel shortage in the province has become a daily routine. Climate change has been knocking at the door. People on the Iran border have died of starvation. The potential of the blue economy has been sidelined by this incompetent government. Fraud, bad governance, inflation, blackmailing of Coalition partners on grabbing funds at its peak, and the internal power struggle within the BAP party have time and again dysfunctioned the government machinery. The diversion of the PSDP to some specific districts whose 60 percent is concrete-centric exposes the myth of the so-called emerging Balochistan. Balochistan may prosper provided that the federal government abides by the constitution by providing due share to Balochistan. Can the expounder of emerging Balochistan tell that how many times he has talked with the federal government about the implementation of Article 172(3) in the true spirit which envisages the 50 percent share of the province on its resources? Can the CM explain to us that how has he fought the case of Balochistan with the federal government about its revenue share from 1955 to 1970__when Balochistan did not have provincial status? In total 255 federal corporations/ autonomous bodies, the due share of Balochistan has been missing. In total 5 lac employees and an annual budget of 1000 to 1200 billion rupees of these bodies the representation and share of the province is equal to none. Would the honorable Chief Minister take credit by taking the due rights of the province? Or he would be engaged in politicizing the PSDP of the province by gimmick slogans. Balochistan is burning not only on the security front but also in the fields of political insecurity, declining economy, and heartbreaking socioeconomic indicators. The miseries of the province need pragmatic strategies, political stability, and holistic governance rather than illusionary and misleading slogans. In the midst of a sorrowful state of affairs, the bamboozling slogan of emerging Balochistan makes no sense-as the ground realities prove that Balochistan is submerging.
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