Gwadar as Capital
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A proposal is on to make the port city of Gwadar on the Makran Coast Balochistan's winter capital. The plan could bring big economic gains for the area, currently one of the least developed in Pakistan, and for the province as a whole. For these reasons the plan should be encouraged. Using two centres as administrative capitals is after all not unique, and was the established practice in colonial times when the entire administrative apparatus shifted with the first heat-laden winds of summer from New Delhi to Simla. The governments in Punjab and other regions made a similar shift. Balochistan at present badly needs innovative plans for development. In this context it is worth noting that one of the ideas that went down well during President Zardari's recent visit to the US was a suggestion from an official making up the Pakistan team for a road working its way from the Balochistan coast to Afghanistan and beyond as a means to promote trade and uplift. US officials are said to see the suggestion as a rare concrete plan from Pakistan on how to better the plight of its people, rather than the waffling which seems to have dominated far too many of the meetings
Improving the lot of the people of Balochistan is of course especially significant. Indeed there is a vital need to do so in order to strengthen our fragile federation. We must therefore hope that the Gwadar plan goes through and that other, innovative measures can be put in place to achieve the same for other parts of the country badly in need of development
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A proposal is on to make the port city of Gwadar on the Makran Coast Balochistan's winter capital. The plan could bring big economic gains for the area, currently one of the least developed in Pakistan, and for the province as a whole. For these reasons the plan should be encouraged. Using two centres as administrative capitals is after all not unique, and was the established practice in colonial times when the entire administrative apparatus shifted with the first heat-laden winds of summer from New Delhi to Simla. The governments in Punjab and other regions made a similar shift. Balochistan at present badly needs innovative plans for development. In this context it is worth noting that one of the ideas that went down well during President Zardari's recent visit to the US was a suggestion from an official making up the Pakistan team for a road working its way from the Balochistan coast to Afghanistan and beyond as a means to promote trade and uplift. US officials are said to see the suggestion as a rare concrete plan from Pakistan on how to better the plight of its people, rather than the waffling which seems to have dominated far too many of the meetings
Improving the lot of the people of Balochistan is of course especially significant. Indeed there is a vital need to do so in order to strengthen our fragile federation. We must therefore hope that the Gwadar plan goes through and that other, innovative measures can be put in place to achieve the same for other parts of the country badly in need of development
Labels: Baluchistan, Gwadar, Pakistan
posted @ 11:46 AM,
0 Comments:
Post a Comment