Talking to Balochistan Chief Minister the other day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stated the obvious when he averred Pakistan cannot become a prosperous country without the development of all its federating units. Many though would disagree with his claim that “my government is pursuing an agenda of progress and development all across the country.” In fact, there is an unremitting feeling in the smaller provinces that the federal government’s attention is centred on the ruling party’s support base, Punjab, and within Punjab the PM’s hometown of Lahore. Critics, for instance, point out that more than 90 percent of Pakistan Railways infrastructure improvement activity is going on in Punjab while 67 percent of the provincial development budget goes into various beautification, road construction, and transportation schemes in Lahore. A highly controversial Orange Line Metro Train in the city is to cost a whopping $1.6 billion, out of which some $300 million are to come from the federal government and the rest from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (EPEC) project — which is meant for various infrastructure, energy and agricultural development schemes all over the country.

When the smaller provinces, especially the most deprived and restive Balochistan, see the federal government’s focus on Punjab – the largest and relatively prosperous province – it does not inspire confidence in them to hear the PM say, “it is our duty to ensure fair distribution of resources among all the provinces, including the federally administered areas and Gilgit-Baltistan” especially, when he tells the Balochistan CM his major development initiatives are to help the people of Balochistan realize their potential in all spheres of life. They believe what they see. President of the Balochistan National Party-M, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, complained at a recent public meeting in Dera Murad Jamali that the majority of people in the province continue to yearn for such basic facilities as potable water, education, healthcare, roads and electricity. And that a large part of the population has no access to gas produced in their own province. The Baloch leader also moaned that while development schemes, such as power projects, railroad networks and some other big undertakings are progressing in full swing in Punjab, not a single CPEC project had been launched in his province. Voicing a common Baloch gripe, he said, the rulers are interested only in the resources of Balochistan and are not ready to give the people their due rights.

Indeed, devolution of provincial autonomy under the 18th Constitutional Amendment and the revised National Finance Commission resource distribution formula have addressed some of the Baloch people’s longstanding grievances. But a lot more needs to be done to remove their distrust of and alienation from the federation. They are now rightly concerned that when the Gwadar Port and the CPEC transport corridor become fully functional, people from other parts of the country will come to work and settle in the province, rendering the Baloch people a minority in their own province. To allay this apprehension, two immediate measures are in order. First, it needs to be ensured that those from other areas must have voting rights only in the provinces of their origin. At the same time, the federal government must provide necessary assistance to the provincial government to equip the Baloch youth with vocational as well as higher education so they can take up jobs, on a preferential basis, that are to become available. Needless to say, only socio-economic harmony among provinces can guarantee national progress and prosperity.