Naseebullah Khan
Balochistan matters. Being the poorest, most neglected, most undeveloped, lacking healthcare facilities, having least literacy rate and most dropout ratio, being facing hunger, being a place of most unemployment in the country, and having been home to immense natural resources, and a key player of energy supplier to the country, and the Jewel of the CPEC_ this province is the victim of federal injustice in the form of regional and fiscal inequalities in its share in foreign projects and loans and grants. There is no criterian which a sane mind accepts as per which formula loans, grants, and projects are distributed in the country.
Currently, Balochistan,s share in total loans as per Mahfooz Ali Khan (the ex_finance secretory of Balochistan) is 2.3 percent annually. In the Federal Budget figures 2018-19 , both loans and grants from external resources were Rs.319.52 Billion in which share of Balochistan was Rs. 9.23 Billion or 2.28%. Mahfooz Ali Khan writes that during the year 2017-18 Pakistan got Rs 333,977.877 Million as external financing for the PSDP. Out of this Balochistan share was Rs 5,587.850 Million or 1.6%. In addition, from 2010 to 2018 Pakistan received 1642.1 billion Rupees as foreign assistance in which Balochistan share was only 24.9 billion rupees or 1.52 percent of total amount.
Notwithstanding, in the federal budget of 2023-24, foreign aid, loans, and grants were around 17.6 billion USD while the share of Balochistan for budget support was 17.5 million dollar. This Loan is given in Pakistani rupees on disbursed date and is retaken as per dollar rate of the time. It is a huge loss of the province. As dollar rate fluctuates and increases at the time of regiving loan or grant Mr. Mahfooz Ali Khan further writes that the burdon of regiving loans taken by the federal government is equal for all province and Balochistan has to bear the burdon as the other provinces bear equally despite the less share of Balochistan. Can Balochistan ever come at par with any province?? The question arises on what criterian these allocation are based-population, area, poverty or need basis? I had written in 2020 in my column “Desperate Balochistan” that in Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) the share of Balochistan was 3.08 percent in 2020. Despite the poorest and least developed province Balochistan share is still unsatisfactory. The formula of the BISP distribution is based neither on poverty nor marginalization.
The sorry state of affairs does not pause here. In 2017, the than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced youth loan scheme in which Balochistan,s share was 2 percent while Punjab got 75 percent share. That formula was again based neither on population nor poverty. The injustice started since the inception of Pakistan. For instance, untill 1970 Balochistan got no surcharge of Gas despite its huge contribution of gas to the country,s energy sector. Moreover, after the 18th amendment as per the Article 172(3) which says that “Subject to the existing commitments and obligations, mineral oil and natural gas within the Province or the territorial waters adjacent thereto shall vest jointly and equally in that Province and the Federal Government.” As per this article Balochistan has to get share of 50 percent on the resources which it produces but the dream of getting fifty percent share remains a dream.
In the CPEC whose jugular vein is Balochistan- the province has been neglected again where its share has been around 5 percent. As an example, there has been 13 proposed projects of Grid stations in which no one is in Balochistan. In total Special Economic Zones only 1 will be established in Balochistan while in Two transmission lines of 500 KVs Balochistan,s share is zero. Whereas in raods projects of the CPEC Balochistan has not been entertained as it deserves.
Though provincial governments have been responsible by compromising on the due share of the province but at the same time the federal governments have been more responsible. In a federating unit and in a heterogeneous society regional and fiscal equality are must for cementing federalism. If parity is not possible but poverty, its share as per its resources, and marginalisation of the province should be considered. Balochistan matters. And the sensitivity of the situation demands that economic and regional injustice should be paused and be converted into justice.