CPEC as a game changer project

The Federal Government has been promulgating that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would remodel the present structure of BALOCHISTAN, but in reality it seems an illusion. The pledges of the politicians are filled with much erroneous information.

Considerably, CPEC has never birthed prosperity to the province. Since the threshold of CPEC even Gwadar’s public has not received any benefits from the project, rather they have been deprived of basic amenities like drinking water. How can someone anticipate progression throughout Balchistan from CPEC when the Local City of BALOCHISTAN, Gwadar, has not benefited from it.

Besides this, Gwadar city has been facing acute shortage of water, but no remedial measures have been taken yet. Sometimes the poor families utilize the sea water because they cannot afford to buy clean water for drinking.

According to the reports, 62% of Balochistan is deprived of clean drinking water and more than 58% of its land is not able to be cultivated due to water scarcity.

It really makes us woe-gone that the people of Balochistan are always left to suffer. They are deprived of electricity, water, nutritious food, healthcare facilities, education and many more to name them, but water shortage is the main problem because without it no one can survive.

While the government is trying to build a world-class port, but sadly, the city remains deprived from basic needs.

In addition, Ankara Kaur Dam was closed due to drying up because its catchment areas had not received rain water for many years. And it is a common place that most of the families buy water from the supplying tankers, which directly collects water from springs or streams and sells it to the needy families without purification.

Gwadar’s residents are compelled to buy water from the tankers, but the down-and-out people are unable to buy, because they cannot afford to buy a tanker of clean drinking water which is beyond the capacity of middle class population.

The Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, Sun Weidong claimed, ” China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would bring an end to unemployment in Balochistan, making the province a major beneficiary of the multi-billion dollar economic development project.” But the statement seems a buried dream to come true.

Unemployment is the biggest challenge that exists in the province, though million of people are estimated to be unemployed and the province has the highest number of poor people, with 48%-51%, depending on date palms.

Almost 25,000 people graduate each year from Balochistan among them merely 2,000 get the jobs.

After years, the question still remains the same Whether

Gwadar has the potential of changing the fate of whole region or it remains only a dream for Baloch to receive handsome changes from CPEC.

Likewise, in Gwadar the local fishermen are being displaced gradually but noticeably, from their main side of fishing, due to the  multi-billion dollar economic development project.

Considerably, CPEC’s beneficiaries are limited only to Punjab even though the province where CPEC is being carried out (BALOCHISTAN), is deprived from getting advantage of this project.

Ergo, longtime residents of Gwadar City along with the other regions of BALOCHISTAN have not had cut-and-dried healthcare facilities, gilt-edged quality education, ect.

Undoubtedly, in the presence of the huge project the innocent children are out of school. As 70% of children are out of schools and 1,800 schools are non functional.

The tall claims by the politicians about China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to emerge as a game changer for the people of Balochistan, is well observed, for the actuality is quite different from says of the politicians.