Gwadar port becomes operational: Urea ship offloaded

[Naveed Yaseen]

QUETTA (December 22 2008): Federal Minister for Port and Shipping Nabil Ahmed Gabol has lauded the efforts of Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani for making Gwadar seaport functional.

Addressing as chief guest the ceremony of the offloading of 30,000 tons urea imported from Qatar in Gwadar on Sunday, the minister said that the people of Balochistan must be proud of their CM who stood with his cardinal principle for getting the rights of Balochistan.

He said that the CM's steps were commendable for presenting sentiments of the people of Balochistan before the President and the PM legitimately and got accepted the demands regarding the Gwadar port.

He said that the credit of Gwadar port making functional went to Raisani who made sincere efforts for the purpose. Raisani said that Gwadar port was an asset of Balochistan, "and we would neither allow anyone to occupy our resources nor allow converting Baloch into minority". He said that the agreement concluded with a Singapore company would be reviewed and subsequently the agreement would be amended if found necessary. "The agreement favours Balochistan and its people. We want an agreement which promotes and protects interests of Balochistan," he added.

He said that all federating units must get their provincial rights in the light of Lahore Resolutoin-1940. "Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto was the only politician who could maintain the federating units intact, but now she is no more among us and it is the responsibility of the incumbent federal government to keep intact and strengthen the federating units by granting rights of the provinces in the light of the resolution-1940," he said. He directed the Gawadar Port Authority (GPA) officials to provide job opportunities to local unemployed youths.

The CM expressed anger and dissatisfaction over non-local labourers offloading urea from the vessel, and directed the concerned officials to provide such jobs to local youths. He said that his government had made efforts for making the port functional to give fruits to the local people and directed the MPA from Gwadar to keep vigil that jobs should be provided to the local people in the port city.

He said: "If we can not benefit the local people by making functional the mega project then it would be useless". He said that his government was taking initiatives for granting control to the local people over their resources and granting their rights in the province. The CM thanked the President, PM and Nabil for taking personal interest for making the port functional. He said that Gwadar deep seaport had not only regional significance, but it had international importance in view of its geo-strategic location. He said that development of the area would continue and he himself would supervise the overall progress of the coastal areas of the province.

GPA Chairman Admiral Ehsan Saeed and representative of Singapore company Khurram Abbas also spoke on the occasion. Balochistan Ministers Younas Mullazai, Asim Kurd Gailu and Hammal Kalmati, district nazim Gawadar Abdul Ghafoor Kalmati, district co-ordination officer-DCO Gawadar Noor-ul-Amin Mengal and other senior officials were also present.

Meanwhile, an official handout of the provincial DPR issued here on Sunday night, quoting GPA, said that 11 more vessels would be anchored off Gawadar port by December 31, 2008 which would increase economic and trade activities in coastal areas including Gawadar and on coastal highway in the province.

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