IN the reforms package for Balochistan, some of the grievances of the local people over Gwadar deep-sea project are proposed to be addressed but the key demands have been ignored. The package relating to Gwadar is similar to one announced by the President Pervez Musharraf's regime in 2005.

No doubt, the proposal for creation of local stakes in the development of Gwadar, if implemented in letter and spirit, will bode well for safe and smooth running of the project.

The proposed steps like absorption of local youth in Gwadar Port Authority (GPA), Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) and Special Economic Zone, nomination of the GDA Chairman and seven members on the GDA board of directors from Balochistan and ensuring appointments of the local candidates in BS- 1 to 16 in the project, would take local people on board in the development process. The package also recommends that qualified local contractors would be preferred in awarding port contracts. Such steps would give a feeling of ownership to the local population.

The package also addresses other long-standing demands of local fishermen like compensation and re-allocation of all those displaced due to the Gwadar port development and construction of two jetties on the eastern and western bays.

Many fear that Baloch's legitimate interests would not be protected during implementation of Gwadar Master Plan (GMP). The idea of resettlement of the entire town and quick shifting has been unpopular among the locals. The government needs to develop low-cost and decent housing scheme equipped with civic facilities for the local people who are living in semi-pucca houses.

But the package contains no recommendation to remove the apprehension of local people about the demographic imbalance, which is likely to be created by an influx of outsiders in Gwadar. The Baloch fear that they would become a minority in their own province. Nationalist parties believe that the local people would gradually see the control of outsiders over the natural resources and encroachment of their right to employment.

While a portion of the Gwadar Port Authority revenue has been recommended for the development of the province, it is still not clear how much and what ratio of revenue would be shared with Balochistan.

The package has missed the issue of levy of local and provincial taxes on Gwadar port operators. These operators are reported to have been exempted from all local and provincial taxes for 20 years under the concession agreement signed on February 6, 2007 between Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) and Port of Singapore Authority (PSA).The province would lose revenue and it would not be the primary beneficiary of Gwadar port if local and municipal taxes are waived off, according to local officials.

Technical training and fishery training centres will also be set up in the province. The local youth would be provided the required skills and professional expertise for port-related activities. For the past five years, there has been only talk about training institutes but nothing has happened. The local people lack skills and professional expertise for successful port management and operations..

The general perception is that the Balochistan package will only prove be ' old wine in new bottle' if its recommendations remain unimplemented.

In June 2005, the parliamentary committee on Balochistan had given the same recommendations for Gwadar. The committee's key recommendations were as follows

* Fishermen disturbed as a result of the construction of the Gwadar port would be relocated and given compensation; the 5.4 per cent of Balochistan's quota in the federal government jobs, agreed to after 1998 census, would be implemented. In the job quota, people of Gwadar would be at the top of priority followed by Mekran and then the rest of Balochistan;

The chief justice of the Balochistan High Court would be asked to investigate the alleged irregularities in the sale of land in Gwadar; settlers in Gwadar would have the right to vote in local polls only and not in elections to the Provincial and National Assemblies.; only Baloch citizens would be appointed heads of the GPA and GDA; sixty per cent of members of the board of governors of the GDA will be residents of Balochistan.

It would have been better for the government to start implementing these recommendations for pacifying the Baloch people, instead of merely re-stating them in its recently announced package.