The committee met with Senator Colonel (retd) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi in the chair here at the Parliament House on Friday. The committee discussed Gwadar projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and clean drinking water issues there.
The committee expressed concern over shortage of clean drinking water as well as lack of other basic facilities to the people of Gwadar.
The committee was informed that master plan of Gwadar would be finalised by August 2018, but at the same time, the local authorities are issuing no objection certificates (NOCs) to commercial and housing schemes for Gwadar. It was informed that mushroom growth of housing schemes is being made in Gwadar city without any master plan, adding that it remains unchecked from the relevant authority of the provincial government.
The members of the committee said the current requirement of fresh water in Gwadar is around 6.5 million gallons daily (MGD), but the availability is only 2 MGD, adding that by the year 2022 it is expected that requirement of fresh water would reach 13 MGD.
After severe criticism of the federal government, Secretary Planning Shoaib Siddiqui said, "We all have heard that you can take horse to the water but you cannot make the horse drink."
He said there were four options but the files had been on the table of chief secretary Balochistan for months.
"The provincial government has to take the decision, we need to establish desalination plants, the port operator wants to establish one plant, another company wants to establish one plant on commercial basis, there is another proposal by a joint venture of a foreign company and FWO - besides the Prime Minister in his recent visit to Balochistan offered to execute water projects through development programmes - but what we need is the consent of the province," he said. The secretary planning said that the federal or provincial governments cannot operate these desalination plants and only a commercial operator can manage and maintain it, otherwise, the machines and system become nonfunctional in a few months.
He said the Senate committee should call the chief secretary in the next meeting to expedite the process and it was decided to form a subcommittee headed by Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani in this regard.
The committee chairman said that future of people of Balochistan depends on Gwadar port but the locals are deprived of clean drinking water. The chairman summoned the chief secretary Balochistan and other senior officials in this regard.
Senator Usman Khan Kakar said that water in Balochistan is a major issue. He said the supply of water is essential and basic need of people but the government is not paying any attention in this regard.
Senator Mohsin Leghari said the situation and tradition of urban development in the country show that the implementation of master plan will be a challenge in Gwadar.
Later briefing the committee about the CPEC projects and Gwadar development, Siddiqui said the master plan of Gwadar will be prepared by August 2018 and requested the committee to restrict the province from issuing NOCs for housing schemes in the area. The committee was briefed about the implementation phases of CPEC and chairman of the committee inquired about the social impact of cross-border road development in the remote areas of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan.
However, Senator Karim Khawaja said the cultural and social change after interaction with the Chinese will be positive on the society. "We will be less extremist and become more liberal and secular - which is needed, besides we all will learn many things from them too," he said, adding, "The policy of the establishment of not having good relations with neighbors including Iran and Afghanistan will also weaken along with the feudalism in the country."
The secretary planning said the CPEC cannot become East India Company as long as decision-makers know what the interests of Pakistan are.
The secretary planning told the committee that a total of 20,000 Pakistani students are studying in China.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017