Will not let anyone usurp Balochistan’s rights: Zardari

JAFARABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) President Asif Ali Zardari promised to bring prosperity to Balochistan adding he would set up industries in the province and give shareholding to the people of the province.

The former president of Pakistan was attending an event organised to commemorate the death anniversary of former chief minister Balochistan Changez Jamali’s grandfather in Jafarbabad on Friday. He spoke to the media and attendees promising that he would not allow anyone to usurp the rights of Balochistan.

Zardari said Balochistan had the most fertile land in the country but faced shortage of water. He said if all canals were paved a lot of water could be saved adding that through drip irrigation more land could be cultivated with less than one-third of the water needed to cultivate through conventional means.

He asked the people of Balochistan to support him, claiming without their support he was nothing. Zardari said if would people do not wish to join his party that was okay, but together they could form a coalition government.

Zardari said he imagined a prosperous Balochistan adding that the province’s rights were usurped to enable only a select few families to become rich.

The former president said many people asked him why he didn’t become prime minister, then went on to explain that if he had become prime minister he would not have been able to give Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a new name, he would not have been able to devolve the president’s powers to the parliament.