SOCIO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN B A L O C H I S T A N

1 INTRODUCTION

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

3 INTRODUCTION TO PROVINCE

4 FACTOR FOR POVERTY AND BACKWORDNESS

4.1 EXPANDED AREA AND DISSIMINATED POPULATION

4.2 RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS

4.3 LIMITED REVENUE BASE

4.4 POOR INFRASRTURE FACILITIES

4.5 POLITICAL CONSIDRATIONS

4.6 FUDEAL/TRIBLE SOCIETY

4.7 RAPID GROWTH OF POPULATION

4.8 GENDER DISCRIMINATION

4.9 POOR INDUSTRIAL BASE

4.10 UNEMPLOYMENT

4.11 HIGEST PER CAPITA DEVELOPMENT COST

4.12 LACK OF COMMUNITY EMPOWERMWNT ABN PARTICIPATION

4.13 POOR APPRASIL AND  FORMULATION OF DEVELOMENT PROJECTS

4.14 POOR CAPCITY OF THE MANNAGERS

5 RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 EMPEHRICAL REVIEW OF THE EXISTING SITUATION

5.2 FORMULATION OF INNOVATIVE  WORKABLEFOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE PROVINCE

5.3 MEANINGFUL LAND REFORMS AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

5.4 ADDRASSAL OF ISSUES OF WATER SCERCITY

5.5 IMPROVEMENT OF LITRACY AND STANDARD S OF EDUCATION

5.6 REFORMS IN HEALH SECTOR

6 ADDRASSAL OF ISSUES OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION

7 SOCIAL MOBLIZATION

8 RESOURCE MOBALIZATION

9 NATURAL RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

10 INTERVENTION IN LIVESTOCK SECTOR

11 INSTITUTIONAL TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING

12 TRANSPERACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Development in Balochistan is complex phenomenon and despite the claims of the Government, other donor and non-Governmental agencies about their expanded intervention and investment in different sectors the impacts on ground are not much visible.

Poverty and backwardness in Balochistan has no doubt remained more pronounced in the pre independence period, but today even after 77 years of independence, the province of Balochistan is still the most backward province when compared with other provinces of the country and the situation on ground gives pity picture of :-

Stronghold of feudal lords and tribal chieftains.

Mass   poverty.

Serious gender discrimination

Non-availability of all basic infrastructure, amenities and social services.

Wide gap and disparities in the income distribution.

Rapid growth in population.

Poor Health and low literacy.

Inadequate opportunities of employment.

During my long field service in the different capacities, and as Administrative secretary of eight important department ,finally as additional chief secretary for two tenures of almost three years it was  observed that the deprivation in the province  is at the extreme level and circumstances are so desperate that in the given circumstances it is almost impossible to address the problem of poverty and backwardness without formulating and launching an integrated development plan with clarity of mind to do away with existing socio economic development policies and priorities mostly based on political consideration and   discrimination rather the need base for the public at large.

So it is high time to bring paradigm shift in the existing policy of development process through MPA funding and devices an integrated need based development policy, plan and implementation strategy exploring the venues to ensure availability of required resources with zero tolerance to the corrupt practices deeply imbedded in the present day development process and to manifest the highest level of spirit of public service at implementation level as well as to avail private non-government assistance already engaged in the society. Otherwise it would be impossible for the depressed and resource less population to take initiative at their own level for the betterment of their lives in order to reduce the existing level of deprivation in relation to life  which is comparatively much better in the other provinces.

The paper is attempted to apprise those responsible for the legislation the public representatives,  the top executives those at the policy formulation level, the  development  professional and the professionals at the implementation level as well as the junior creed of the civil  about the state of affairs in the development process in vogue in the province.

              The paper will brings about the details on the job lessons learnt about, factors contributing to the backwardness and the innovative policy and plan to be formulated with fast track implementation strategy for speedy socio economic development of the province to elevate the province at par with rest of the provinces of the country to remove the acute trust deficit and disparities which is believed to be one of the important reason for the ongoing unrest, insurgency/crisis in the province.

During the study, the research work of important research scholars on the planning and development processes, implementation strategies has been consulted/ studied for the proper and wholesome comprehension of development process, which includes the following:

MaleehaLodhi -Political Economy of Pakistan

Nasim Ahmad -A comprehensive examination of the planning processes and their impacts in Pakistan.

Nasim Ahmad Economic Planning in Pakistan.

Dr. A. R. K. Fakhrul Islam Rbani– Planning in Pakistan.

Shandana M. Khan – Pakistan’s Development: Social and Economic Policies.

Mushtaq Khan-Poverty, Growth, and Inequality in Pakistan

 Lan Talbot- Pakistan: A Modern History.

 M.H. Mammon- Development Planning in Pakistan A. H.Nayyar-Gender and Development in Pakistan.

Balochistan is the largest province of the country in term of its area, which constitutes about 44% of the whole country having important geographic location in the present day regional geopolitics, sharing  1200 KM long porous border with Afghanistan, 906 KM with Iran, and 1129 KM long coastline with Arabian sea making a corridor between the Central Asian states and the Indian Ocean which attracts the regional as well the western industrial states and powers to have hegemony in the area to secure their own political and economic interest.

Administratively the Province Balochistan comprises on eight Divisions, thirty-six Districts and about 120 sub divisions. The rural Districts of the Province, spans over an area of many hundreds KMs. The levies force is responsible for maintenance of law and order in 90% of the area working under the administrative control of Deputy Commissioners and over all supervision of Home Department whereas, police is responsible for the law & order and security duties for only about 10 % of the Province. The governance cost for maintenance of law and order in the expended area of the Province for its poor communication (road network) goes highest compared to other provinces. The persistent low level insurgency, target killings, ethnic and sectarian violence, terrorist and sabotage activities, kidnapping for ransom and increase in the highway crimes on much higher side in the past and present  has also escalated the costs of governance requiring extra security measures to contain and control the increasing crime with its changed pattern. The Province of Balochistan due to its meager resources is running short of funds required manpower, equipment’s, transport and communication facilitates to effectively control the law and order in the for flung areas of  the province which is impeding the development process in the province.

The security situation in the province is complicated chapter having internal and external dynamics, which are discussed length in my paper on INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DYNAMICS ODF SECURITY SITUATION IN BALOCHISTAN. The worsening security situation in the province has far reaching two fold negative bearings on the development process  firstly resulting in to resource constraints due to ever increasing expenses on law and order and security related issues and secondly due to cast over run due to delay in the completion of development projects.

There are multiple factors involved in the present state of poverty and backwardness of which following are discussed in the text of this paper.

Expanded area, disseminated  population  and strong affiliation /attachment of the peoples with their ancestral land, and  the indigenous  people  of the province prefer to live and stay in their ancestral dwellings deep inside the rugged mountains and valleys and are hardly inclined/interested to migrate and settle with mix population at  some urban centers where basic facilities of life can be made available by the government and other non-governmental agencies, otherwise provision of all basic facilities of life to the scattered population at thousands  of small settlements is quite impossible within the available resources. Therefore, in the context of Balochistan, the expanded physical distances and scattered population is believed to be the important reason of backwardness and perpetual poverty.

The share of Balochistan province in the national divisible pool has also remained quite inadequate; throughout the past is also an important reason of poor development in the province. The province of Balochistan has since very early has raised its serious concerned about resource distribution criteria adopted in the county  based on the soul criteria of population for long time  ignoring the other important factors of population, poverty and backwardness. Because of single factor formula, Balochistan has received limited resources from the national devisable pool quit meager to meet out its requirement for the development in the expended area of the Province.

 The unrealistic resource distribution formula has not only caused serious financial constraints but has  also remained the major cause of distrust and mistrust between the province and federal government and other federating units impeding national harmony and integration. The non-exploitation of its own resources and the poor receipts of resources from the National divisible pool have cause serious financial economic constraints defeating the objective and planes of speedy socio economic development and poverty alleviation in the province.

The Province of Balochistan in spite of having huge mineral resources and expended land is resource less province for the reasons that its mineral wealth could not be exploited for want of technology, required investment, skilled human resource  and for  political  and security reasons reasons for the progress and development of the province. The expended land of the province could also not be brought under cultivation due to long going on controversy of ownership and water scarcity issues to attain the food security and betterment of the economy of the province.

The major revenue sources of the Province include royalty on nonmetallic minerals, Fisheries, excise duties, revenue taxes on immovable property, registration fee, Agriculture and irrigation taxes. Throughout the past the provincial taxes had constituted only 7% of the total due/recoverable taxes, whereas 93% of the taxes in the province had been collected by the Federal Government. However, after 18th amendment the collection of large number of taxes have been devolved to the provinces and the province of Balochistan in particularly at the moment lacks the required institutional capacity to recover the devolved taxes and further expand the tax network. So besides, devolving the collection of these taxes, the Federal Government shall also have assisted in developing the institutional capacity of the province so that, the province is benefited from these devolved taxes in a true sense.

The financial constraints added with the expended area and scattered population has remained serious impediment for the successive governments to raise the basic infrastructure as a base to provide civic facilities to the masses in the province. The lack of basic infrastructure facilities due to non-availability of required resources has seriously casted over the development program and efforts for the poverty alleviation, and consequently the population is still living primitive life with the miseries as part of their destiny which will take long time, resources and commitment to change.

During expanded field experience, and incumbency on the top provincial positions it was observed with the placement of huge development funds at the disposal of the public representatives, the development activities in a particular area are being initiated and approved/ executed in complete departure to the guide line contained in the planning and development manual.  So ninety 90% percent of the development budget are allocated to the development schemes selected purely on political consideration as political mileage and for personal monitory interests instead of  according priority to the actual needs and requirement of the area and its populace. Further that in a particular area, only specific group of people ((personal/party voters) are  being beneficiated out of the development scheme on political considerations to secure their vote bankat the cost of public tax money, further in a bid to secure the vote bank for the next election process acute duplication is being observed in the approval and execution of the schemes in one at the same area by the public representatives from different political institutions and parties resulting into huge wastage of public money  defeating the objectives of equitable  development process.

The development and economic professional of the planning and development department, the professional engineers of the Nation building departments and the provincial bureaucracy comprising of the PAS, BCS and BSS officer have lost all their professional strength to check the wrongs and put the things on the right track rather have preferred to compromise for the sack posting due missing constitutional protection and for the sack of monitory interests due  financial insecurity they are faced with being government service.

The public representative mostly having very poor educational background, with no expose and experience of the and planning development and the processes involved has become the sole proprietor of the whole development cycle from the level of identification and approval of the development schemes, approval of the development funds, posting of the officers of their choice and award of the contract to the contractor of their choice for the very obvious purpose of political and monetary gains.

To sum up the placement of development funds at the absolute disposal of the public representative with no background knowledge of the development processes without any shadow of doubt is the major source of corruption and reason for the perpetual back wornness of the province and bright day deviation from their main responsibility of legislation as member of the parliament.

Agriculture is an important sector of economy in the province, about 70% of the population is directly/indirectly concerned with agriculture sector, but due to tribal society, the hold of tribal Sardars and feudal lards is still very strong over large majority of the rural population. The feudal lords own huge chunk the agricultural land and water resources in the province whereas the peasants enjoy quite limited ownership and access to the irrigation water. Large majority of the rural  population is kept engaged by the feudal lords throughout the year in their agricultural field at very nominal sharing of the produce as such the peasant mostly remains under debt in spite of huge earning for their feudal lord from the same agricultural land. This sorry state of affair in the areas is believed to be one of the major reasons for persistent backwardness and poverty.

Population growth in the area of Balochistan is on high side as compare to the other areas of the country. The fertility rate in the areas is six children per women. There are religious, social, cultural reasons for population growth in the area of The rapid growth of population in the province reflects on failure re of the government program of population planning, lack of political will and limited resources allocated for the success of the programme due to which the department responsible could not create awareness about the gravity of the situation amongst the population.

Amongst many consequences of the population, growth poverty is more pronounced, as 60 percent of the population already live below the poverty line, which is obvious to increase if population goes to increase with its present rate, which is on quite high side.

Reportedly, the population welfare department in the province has targeted/covered only 5 percent of the area. The areas need to be specially focused to create awareness amongst the illiterate and uneducated masses to control rapid growth in population otherwise; the planes for the socio economic development efforts for the poverty alleviation for the areas will not come up with the desired expected results.

Gender discrimination is well there in Pakistani society, but it is more pronounce in the areas of Balochistan. The women folk constitute more the 50% of the population who beside multifarious household duties are also responsible for outdoor duties and labor such as fetching water. collection of fire wood, all sort of agriculture labor, but still gender discrimination in the area is on high side and all basic right to the woman folk are openly denied. The gender discrimination, poor awareness and empowerment leading to non-participation of the women in the development and economic activities is believed to be the important reason of poverty and perpetual dependency.

Industrial development is the potential means of progress and prosperity for the particular country and nation, but unfortunately in spite of the availability of cheap labor, raw retrial and mineral resources, these could not be used for the benefit of common men, progress and prosperity of province for the obvious reasons of energy crises, absence of capital and modern technologies irrational taxation system and poor law and order situation to attract foreign investors. Besides cottage industry, which is, less capital and less technology incentive and an important source of  rural economy is being neglected, depriving the rural  population of their important source of income has  lead to further deterioration of economy.

It is high time to plan and exploit our industrial and cottage industry potential to the full extent to address the problems of urban/ rural unemployment, improve standard of living both in the urban and rural areas of the province.

The problem of unemployment has become quite serious and getting out of proportion day by day.  Unemployment brings in light the dark side of human character as it creates discontent and discontent, forces law-abiding person to dishonest ways and criminal activities. Unemployment amongst  population  is rather more dangerous for the country and nation as it not only perpetuates  poverty but it creates acute food scarcity creating law and order, causing serious imbalances in the economy of the country and consequently the Government  has to divert huge resources and spending to control the problem of food scarcity and to  maintain  law and  order in the country at the cost of development activities in different  sectors and other measures for poverty alleviation in the province.

The strong control of the feudal and Tribal Sardars over the irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture land, untrustworthy seasonal rains, poor land holding and access to the irrigation water, heavy taxation and exploitation at the hand of revenue officials added by poor industrial base low literacy are the major reasons of un-employment due to which our population is in the state of mass chronic economic depression leading to acute poverty.

The development cost per capita in the province is quite high as compared to other Provinces for the simple reason of its expended physical distances and disseminated / scattered settlements. Besides, the deep-rooted cultural values of the indigenous dwellers having strong attachments with their ancestral lands, coupled with their unwillingness to settle down at common settlements where the basic infrastructure and other civic facilities could be ensured at a relatively low cost, are the reasons for highest per capita development cast in the province.

Empowerment of the community at grass root level through devolution of power is essential for development, as under the devolved system more representation, participation, empowerment and more resources are made available to the public representatives/communities at the grass root levels.

The local government system empowering the communities at the gross root level is one of the best systems to strengthen democratic culture at grass root level, provide more opportunities of representations and participation in the decision making process and socio economic development of the long neglected areas to address the basic problems of health education, drinking water and other civic and municipal services in a better way.

The experience from developing countries reveals that they have attended the  level of progress  due to effective empowerment and participation of the communities in the decision making and implementation process. Let them to be the best judge of their situation and the architect of their destiny to decide the ways and means to bring betterment in life.  Let’s create sense of ownership amongst the communities through their effective involvement in the development process otherwise speedy development and poverty alleviation in the areas of the province will remain difficult task to achieve.

However, only empowerment of the communities at the grass root level may not serve the propose as the poor capacity of the communities has remained the leading constraint/impediment to ensure efficient participation of the communities in the development process. Therefore, it is highly imperative that beside empowerment we shall also build the capacity of the communities to efficiently participate in the process of socio economic development.

Poor appraisal of situation on ground leading to unrealistic and improper planning is another important reason of backwardness in the province. An understanding of the actual requirement of population is of paramount importance to ensure development in true sense, which surely requires extensive and careful research and appraisal of on ground situation.

All the development programmers’ needs to be extensively reviewed in the light of authentic statics on backwardness and poverty, and missing facilities and the new interventions on need basis shall be approved with the consultation of concerned communities and implemented through the participation of communities to ensure equitable development and ensure that none of the community is left unattended and deprived.

Beside need based efficient development strategy, availability of required monitory resources, the capacity and the level of commitment of the managers of development program cannot be ignored to achieve the desired objectives of speedy socio economic development and poverty alleviation.

The capacity building of the worker and managers of the development program is highly important besides they also need to be imparted missionary spirit/zeal, otherwise, the development plans and valuable resources for the purpose may go waste/drain down the stream leaving the masses at the same pitch of hue and  cry.

Following interventions are recommended for improvement in the present state of the backwardness and poverty alleviation and to ensure speedy socio economic development in the province: –

The authorities must in the first step thoroughly review the statics on poverty to know how critical the situation is and what urgent meaningful interventions in the particular areas on actual need basis are required., the level and extent of existing interventions and investment of the Government and non Governmental organizations must be appreciated andthe left over areas which needs be identified to be focused and attended to ensure equitable development on need and requirement basis.

The authorities  must thread barely analyze,  critically review how the current policies and action plan can be made more refined ,improved,  expanded,  made more meaningful and result oriented to achieve the desired objectives of speedy socio economical development.

Policies on land reforms, agriculture development, health, education, population planning and   the existing development programs needs to be extensively reviewed  and an integrated development program needs to be evolved in the light of authentic statics on development and actual community based  requirements.

In the province of Balochistan poor statistics on the development, lack of financial and technical resources, poor community participation, lack of the political will and commitment, security issues, poor co-ordination among the different important stakeholders has seriously impeded formulation of viable and workable strategy for development.

 A workable strategy for the development in the province needs to be evolved after an empirical research and extensive discussion amongst all the important stake stakeholders i.e. the Government, the non-governmental Organizations/Donor Agencies and the true representative community Organizations.

An integrated, expanded and rational need based development plan is the requirement of time and key to the speedy socio economic development of province.  Rigorous land reforms in the areas shall be important chapter of and on the top priority of the integrated development program, however, the agriculture development alone cannot ensure speedy development,  integrated development program shall also cover reforms in other social sectors such as health, education, water and sanitation and natural resource management particularly exploitation of huge mineral resources need to be specially focused on to address the problem of resource constraint to attain the desired objectives of  socio economic development and poverty alleviation in the long deprived and neglected  province of Balochistan.

Province of Balochistan has tribal and feudal society where the Tribal Sardars and feudal lords have expanded agricultural assets in some of the districts having  complete control over the settled and  vast unsettled land and available water resources  All the past land reform program introduced by the successive government from time to time to distribute the huge land of feudal lords and tribal Sardars amongst the poor peasant  with the two fold objectives i.e. to promote agriculture by bringing more  and more land under cultivation to attain food security and also to weak the strong hold of the feudal lords and Tribal Sardars, but  unfortunately all these efforts ended in failures as the land lords with connivance of the revenue officials have managed to transfer the land in the names of their relative  and others who are under their strong influence and as such the feudal lords still enjoy complete control over these expended assets.

Rigorous land reforms as well as distribution of state land amongst the peasant are highly imperative in pursuance of peasant charter of 1977 to live the dream and desire of Agriculture development, batter livelihood and sustenance to the huge rural population presently living under poverty line.

 Besides expanded land reforms meaningful  technical and financial assistance for preparation of their agriculture land, improvement of  irrigation facilities will be required so that  agriculture does not remains at the mercy of rains, revolutionary changes in the method of cultivation, extensive reclamation of the waste land so that the same is brought under plough and cultivation,  capacity building  of farmer  and crop insurance , better marketing of their agricultural  produce are some of the measures which can address the problem of availability of edible commodities at cheaper rats, creating unemployment opportunities  leading poverty reduction and  will further ensure  food security in the country , which ultimately will ensure sustainable economy.

Particularly the formers who have suffered from continual prolong droughts and excessive flooding having lost their valuable assets shall be assisted specially in following terms.

By reconstructing their agricultural land and water channels, and by provision of machinery and other agricultural tools where required.

Provided with improved quality of seeds and fertilizer.

Education and assistance in adopting new techniques of plugging, processing and harvesting to increase productivity.

The farmer shall be ensured better marketing and enhanced profit for their produce leading to better economy

Balochistan is water scarce region owing to its geography, arid and semi arid climatic conditions with peculiar characteristics of intense heat, dust storms, high evaporation and evapo transpiration, low rate of perception, as such there is acute shortage of water for drinking and other domestic purposes as well as for agriculture activities in the areas.

The issue of water scarcity in the province is further complicated due to long dry spells and excessive flooding of the past two decades which has caused sharp depletion in the ground water level resulting into acute shortage of water for drinking and domestic proposes and also has seriously damaged the agriculture sector depriving the population of their agriculture assets developed over decades with huge investment.

Being basic and essential most commodities, the Poor’s spend most of their earning on purchasing water for the household and domestic purposes whereas the  others particularly the women and children’s in the rural areas have to fetch water form long distances for drinking and domestic purposes, The non-availability and adequate quantity of water for household and sanitation purposes and improper disposal of human and other solid waste has also caused serious environmental pollution having pronounced health hazards for the population.

Access to safe drinking water, proper sanitation system and safe disposal of solid waste and availability of reasonable quantity of water for agricultural activities are the most pressing problems of the large majority of  population and need to be addressed on top priority, which is prerequisite for better health, reduction in the high mortality rate in the areas due to water born and other infectious diseases and also these provisions will reduce the huge spending of the population on health care and the extended agriculture activities with the availability of required water  will ultimately contribute to the poverty alleviation ensuring more participation of the communities in the  economic activities.

Addressal of the issues of water scarcity in the areas is of foremost importance and imperative for development and to control mass migration the urban areas having acute negative impacts in the economy and urban infrastructure and civic facilities.

 Following interventions are required to be made on urgent basis.

Proper management and monitoring of the existing underground water basins of the province shall be ensured.

 Annual water allocations from underground water basins for different sectors shall be approved on need basis.

 Efficient and effective water shed management shall be ensured in the catchment areas to control wastage of stream water.

Efficient modern techniques of irrigation shall be introduced.

 The cropping pattern shall be changed. The farmer shall be convinced and facilitated to switch over to the crops, which consume less water.

  The laws relating to the administration of underground water and canal irrigation water shall be strictly enforced by taking strict legal action shall be taken against the illegal and indiscriminate pumping/drawl of water.

Mass awareness shall be created about the problem of water scarcity and its controlled consumption to avoid unnecessary harvesting of this valuable resource of future generation.

The addressal of the issues of water scarcity will have positive impacts over the health, improvement of the economy and will address the problem of food scarcity in the country.

Illiteracy is grave and complex phenomenon and is serious impediment in the socio economic development of the area of the province. For children illiteracy means forced labor, vagrancy, sickness and slavery, for adult illiteracy is primitive manual labor in agriculture and industry, uncertain employment opportunities, lifetime miserable living conditions, for women it is incapacity, complete dependency and exploitation.

The literacy rate in the province is 35% as compared to the national literacy rate, which is above 50%. The grass enrollment rate in the province is just 30% with the dropout rate of 60% as compared to the national rate of 70% and 25%. The situation is highly discouraging particularly in the areas, which has seriously undermined the efforts for speedy development and poverty alleviation.

 Illiteracy leads to unawareness, denies knowledge and skill, which are otherwise key to the progress and socio economic development of the areas. Literate nation and societies are more enlightened, empowered, more responsive and conscious about their rights and responsibilities towards others and society.

Literacy over a period has become indispensable tool for human progress and socioeconomic development of the societies. The education system needs to be thoroughly reformed to make the population

 literate and educated to combat poverty, protect children from hazards of labor and exploitation, guard against women discrimination, promote human rights, improve health standards and influence/control rapid growth in population.

  Following necessary interventions are required:-

The enrollment in schools shall be improved and the annual drop out shall be effectively controlled by facilitating the enrolled students by providing all basic requirements and creating attractive and friendly environment at schools.

The teachers shall be appointed purely on merit, shall be imparted essential pre service training to build up their capacity for efficiently teaching students at school level.

The teacher shall be given special incentives in salary for serving in the areas.

The outstanding teachers and students shall be rewarded annually for their performance to attract and motivate the others.

Special attention shall be given for technical and vocational training at school level so that; the student shall find jobs easily after leaving school.

Besides formal education, attention shall be given to non-formal education to improve the literacy rate in the areas.

An effective monitoring system shall be evolved to regularly monitor the performance of teachers and students.

The poor health services in the area leading to poor health standard of the masses  has casted negative impacts on the economy of families, rendering the work force idle and causing huge expenditure on health care.

Due to poor knowledge about the health related issues and non ability of adequate health services, the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate is quite on high side which is 550 to 800 as per 100000 cases in the province of Balochistan particularly in the areas as compared to rest of the country which is 350 to 400 deaths at national level.  The infant mortality rate in the province of Balochistan figures 110/1000 as compared to the national level, which is 90/1000.

Though provision of basic health facilities is widely recognized to be the basic right of all citizens but in the province of Balochistan particularly in rural areas there are wide gaps causing acute disparities as compared to the other parts of the country.

The government and nongovernmental organizations are required to initiate effective interventions identify the gaps and address the weak areas to ensure better health services to the poor masses. Following interventions are recommended in this regard:-

The existing poorly equipped and poorly manned health units shall be better equipped and manned to provide better preventive and curative cover to the population.

The managers shall ensure the presence of professional and other technical staff at the health units through provision of all basic facilities for the staff and effective supervision.

Mass awareness shall be created amongst the population about water born, infectious and other diseases related to the poor hygienic conditions and given better understanding of preventive measures against these diseases.

The government should show political commitment not to compromise at any level over the health related issues.

The communities need to be mobilized to effectively participate in the mass awareness program about diseases and healthcare issues.

The malnutrition of pregnant women and newly born children is also another serious problem resulting into the high mortality and morbidity rates. The governmental and non-governmental organizations are required to encounter the problem of malnutrition, effectively to improve the health status of women and children, thereby saving their huge spending on health.

The better health services leading to better health of communities will have pronounced positive impacts over the economy by saving their huge expenditure on health care and through their involvement in the economic activities, earning better livelihood for their families.

The women folks constitute more than 50% of the population in the province and it is next to impossible to develop the areas and reduce deep-rooted poverty without participation of the women in the development process.

 It is high time to educate, empower women, organize women community, built up their capacity and involve them in the decision making and implementation process of the development in the areas. The women organizations need to be adequately financially supported for the implementation of their identified development plans as well as the women shall also be provided financial credit for small household projects to improve their earning and contribute to the poverty alleviation efforts. The addressing of the existing gender discrimination will not only strengthen women but also the entire family ensuring better bringing up, health and education to the future generations.

Conceptually social mobilization means forming groups of men, women known as community organization and building up their capacity, giving them wider understanding of their rights and responsibilities so that they may identify community oriented projects, arrange for the resources, execute the same and take its ownership to improve the living condition of communities.

          Mobilized and active community is one which is capable to identify the needs of the particular community, prioritize the same as per community’s collective requirement, arrange for resources through contributions from amongst the members of the community or from the government line department or from the non governmental agencies to efficiently implement the project in hand for the collective benefit of the community. So community organizations have social and monitory responsibilities, as  at one hand it brings the people together for the collective good of the community and on the other hand to work for resource mobilization from public and private sector for implementation of the community oriented projects.

Community organization are important and effective forum of empowering the population to take part in the decision making process, implement the development projects and to take the responsibility of future management by creating sense of responsibility of and ownership.

The proper mobilization of community, their capacity building their effective participation with sense of ownership is master key to the development in back word areas and poverty alleviation and as such needs to be specifically focused  by the authorities and  make their  development plans successful with visible positive changes and betterment in the life of poor and back word communities.

Under the federal setup the issues of revenue generation and distribution amongst the federal government and federating units is extensively debated and a workable principals and formula for the resource distribution amongst all the stakeholder is approved with consensus.

Under the principals of federalism in an ideal federal state, a multi dimensional formula for the resource distribution is adopted considering the population area, poverty, backwardness, resource generation capacity that provides ample resources and opportunities of progress and prosperity to the federating units which also highly contributes to the national integrity and solidarity.

The distribution of resource formula on the basis of population as soul criteria and subsequently with less weightage to other important factors ,area, poverty and back wordiness ,inverse population etc. however during the 7th NFC some  positive and constructive steps were taken i.e. resource distribution formula is a bit revised/improved and the concurrent legislative list is also abolished however more realistic and meaningful measures are required to be taken in this regards  to address the grievances of the smaller provinces who mostly look towards the federal government for the implementation of their development plans and for the provision of essential social services to their masses.

The deep rooted poverty and backwardness where all the basic facilities of life are still missing in the presently civilization needs to approach and motivate the international donor agencies to take stock of the situation and come forward to extend their value able financial and technical assistance on humanitarian grounds for the development and poverty alleviation efforts in the province.

The mineral resources, agriculture and livestock are the major assets and sources of livelihood of the large majority of the population in the province and there exists great potential in the mineral, agriculture and livestock sectors to be exploited for the socio economic development of the province leading to ultimate prosperity of the common man.

The Province of Balochistan in spite of having huge mineral resources had been facing financial constraints as its resources could not be exploited because of lack of technology, human and financial constraints and also due to political and security reasons, as such its own proven resources could not be utilized/invested for the improvement of infrastructure, progress and prosperity of the province as well as its masses. Further that feeling amongst the political circles as well as common masses of the province that the natural resources of the Province are under the complete control of the Federal Government, which are either not exploited or where exploited, the province has been given very limited share in the same.

The exploitation of the huge untapped natural resources of the province is not only imperative for the socio economic development of the province, but that of the whole country. Therefore, the federal as well the provincial government may put in a very sincere efforts for the exploitation of these natural resources and its fair sharing between the province and federation, so that the trust deficit is removed, political and security reasons involved abstracting the exploitation of these resources are attended and addressed and the resources are exploited and well utilized for the common good of province and country.

To efficiently exploit the known minerals in Balochistan, the mineral activities being attended in the private and public sector needs to be thoroughly revisited and consequently improve in terms of mechanism of beneficiation. The following measures inputs may assist to ensure socio economic development, poverty alleviation and wellbeing of the common masses

The first and foremost pre-requisite is the availability of database on mineral front prepared and derived from ground positions.

Availability of lucrative rules and regulations based on logic, merit and viability attracting the domestic and international investors with sovereign assurances/guarantees for secure economic dividends.

Development of infrastructure specific to mineral project areas to be exploited to facilitate mineral transport.

Development of human resource developing polytechnic institute generating human resource for the project and its diversified need, such as drilling, chemistry labs, computer labs.

Development of downstream industry/ intervention for value addition to the crude mineral ores to be mined and exported including processing segregation, milling and smelting.

Interventions in some other allied field’s i.e.  investment in infrastructure on BOT (Built Operate and Transfer) would have to be made in the existing development plan with the guarantee to recover the cost of infrastructure development by the investor helping to uplift socio economic conditions, such as energy sector development, communication/telecommunication sector development, health and education sector development, whether specific for project labor or for the area.

Livestock’s are important part of life in Balochistan as the rural majority population besides their main source of livelihood agriculture also essentially maintains livestock is which reasonably substantiate their earnings. In the province hardly 10% of its total land mass is cultivated, whereas the rest of the 90% of the land mass contains sizeable grazing fields, range forests which provides ample quantity of feed requirement for the livestock.

According to the latest census, the sheep and goat are the common livestock in the area, which numbers about 28 million all over the province. Beside domestic livestock, large number of migratory hoards of livestock mostly sheep’s goats and camel move from cold to hot areas in winter and moving back to the cold areas in summer are well fed in these huge grazing fields

However, livestock, an important sector of economy has badly suffered during the past two decades due to prolonged dry spell and excessive flooding depriving the folk of this valuable source of earning/livelihood. Further, that due to long physical distances, poor resources, low level of commitment amongst the officials of livestock department and poor awareness amongst the population the preventive and curative coverage of livestock diseases has remained poor.

The livestock being an important sector of life needs to be specially focused on to add to the economy. Following interventions are essential to be undertaken by the government and non-governmental agencies:-

Special livestock restocking program shall be approved for the rural population who have lost their livestock due to prolonged drought and excessive floorings of the past 20 years. However only the deserving population shall be supported without any political influence.

Livestock preventive and curative services shall be ensured in the deep areas by ensuring the presence of the staff of livestock department and availability of adequate quantity of livestock medicine both for preventive and curative purpose.

Technical and advisory services shall be extended to the population for increasing livestock productivity of milk and meat and cold storage facility to save the surplus milk shall be arranged in the areas.

Better marketing facilities for the livestock products shall be ensured to further ensure better earning to the population.

The livestock productivity shall be improved by introducing modern technique and practices in this process to increase the number of livestock in the area.

Further that the natural calamities of the past 20 years in the shape of drought and excessive flooding has caused serious negative impacts on different social sectors these impacts remained more pronounced on the agriculture and livestock sectors depriving the large majority of population of their livelihood, adding to their worries and poverty.

The government and non-governmental organizations need to be conscious and cognizant of the losses the masses have sustained in the agricultural and livestock sectors due to prolong drought and excessive flooding during the past two decades and reasonably assist the masses in both the sectors, enabling them to recover the losses and restart their activities in both the agricultural and livestock sectors.

Balochistan is expanded province, the governmental and non-governmental organizations have either no access to deep interior for communication and other security reasons or for their lack of interest to carry out proper appraisal of the proposed development project and as such neither feasible projects are identified/ approved, nor the public at large is benefited from the same. The organizational weaknesses observed and which needs to rectified follows as:-

low capacity of the officers of the line departments leading to poor commitment and understanding of the compounded and complicated problems of the population,

poor mechanism and methodology of the appraisal and approval of the development schemes,

incorrect statistics,

limited required facilities and resources,

Political interference in identification approval and execution of unfeasible scheme, resulting into large number of duplication and huge wastage of public money.

Above all transparency and corruption is very serious issue in the province impeding the development process and efforts for the poverty alleviation.  Corruption is multidimensional problem; it is inhuman, immoral derogatory indecent hatful practice, which has made life difficult and miserable for large majority of the masses in the province particularly for the poor ones.

Lack of transparency, corruption and partial accountability is no doubt one of the major reasons for the perpetual backwardness and poverty in the province. Corruption has been on rise for the past four decades almost every successive government had to face serious charges if corruption.

Poor transparency, corruption without fear accountability has always remains current topic of debate in the society as corruption has penetrated equally in the public and private sector making life hard and miserable particularly for the large majority of poor population. All the hopes of the masses to see the province as progressive and prosperous corruption free province have ended in fiasco. The government had introduced different fiscal policies and reforms from time to time to ensure transparency and achieve the ambitions targets of fast economic development

All the above has seriously undermined the development projects launched in the area for the development and betterment in life of the common man, resulting into wastage of limited available valuable resources and defeating the very objectives of progress and prosperity of the masses and leaving them on the same pitch of hue and cry as if it is their destiny. So the institutional strengthening and capacity development is of paramount importance to put the province on the fast development track.