By Saleem Shahid
Monday, 08 Dec, 2008
QUETTA: The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Aslam Raisani has demanded that agreements made by the previous government regarding Gwadar Port and the Rico Dick Copper-Gold project should be either rectified in favour of Balochistan or cancelled all together. ‘These agreements would not benefit Balochistan,’ he told Dawn on Sunday.
In the first of two agreements under review, a Singaporean company had been contracted to expand Gwadar into a deep sea port. Under the agreement, the port will be handed over to the foreign company for 40 years and several incentives have already been given in this regard.
‘I have shown our reservation on Gwadar agreement and spoke to the federal minister for shipping and ports on the issue and asked him that the agreement should be cancelled or rectified in favour of Balochistan.,’ the Chief Minister said. 'This port belongs to my people. It was built on our land and this agreement should be rectified in our favour,’ Nawab Raisani continued.
Referring to the Rico Dick Copper-Gold Project in Chagai district, Raisani stated that: ‘I would never go for this agreement.’ He also stated that he had already taken up the issue with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and that he had agreed on their stand.
‘If we go for these kinds of agreements then these companies would only leave deep ditches for us and we would not be benefiting from these projects,’ the Chief Minister concluded.
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