QUETTA, May 9: The federal government will spend Rs33 billion for various development projects in Balochistan during the next financial year and a team of Planning Commission experts will visit Gwadar soon to review proposals for making the port fully functional.

This was decided at a meeting of Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and his team with officials of the Planning Commission headed by Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq in Islamabad the other day.

The allocation of resources for Balochistan projects would come under discussion at a meeting of the Annual Plan Committee on Thursday in Islamabad, sources said.

The chief minister, accompanied by the finance minister, Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad, additional chief secretary and finance secretary, were formally briefed on the release of federal funds for development projects and those projects for which no funds were released.

“Release of funds for Balochistan development projects will improve by June next,” Dr Haq assured the meeting.

A senior official of the Balochistan government said the Planning Commission team held out an assurance that Rs5 billion would be released to the Balochistan government by June.

“The funds will be spent on NHA projects in Balochistan. Almost all NHA projects in Balochistan had been stopped for want of funds.”

After release of these funds there is hope that the NHA will be able to resume work on different national highways in Balochistan which have been delayed because of non-release of funds.