Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has announced the government would spend Rs.600 billion on development projects in nine districts of southern Balochistan during the next three years, to improve the living standards of local people.
Out of the total, the federal government will provide Rs540 billion, while the rest would be spent by the Balochistan government.
Addressing a press briefing in Islamabad on Thursday along with Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz, Minister for Defence Production Zubaida Jalal and Minister for Communication Murad Saeed, Umar said the government would also engage the private sector in some development projects in the area.
The package, he added, was prepared under the special direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan who had a firm belief on raising the weak segment of society. “The country’s historic package has been prepared with an integrated strategy to ensure that people belonging to all segment of society should get benefit from this package.”
The planning minister hoped that after completion of this programme, the most impoverished area of the country would see prosperity and it would become a practical example of PM Imran’s vision of Naya Pakistan.
In the past, he said, the approach of allocating money for development projects was different and that was not integrated, however, now “we have embarked upon a new system under which all the sectors and ministries will be engaged collectively.”
For instance, Umar said, in southern Balochistan, agriculture was the most important source of income for locals for which, the people need water, for which dams would have to be built.
He said that at present only 12 per cent people of the area are enjoying the facility of government electricity. “Under this package, we will provide electricity to over 57 per cent population of the area and for this off-grid electricity option will also be implemented to provide electricity to the scattered population of the area.”
Similarly, the government would build 16 new dams which will irrigate about 150,000 acres of land, he added.
