The Chief Minister, Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, had a meeting with the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, in Quetta the other day and it was decided to hand over the Saindak Project to the Provincial Government when the accord with the Chinese Company will expire in October this year.  It was a unanimous decision between the Chief Minister and Federal Minister for Natural Resources in which the Provincial Chief Secretary, Mr. Saifullah Chattha and the Provincial Secretary for Mines and Minerals were also present. It was also decided to form a high powered committee under the leadership of the Chief Secretary for holding further talks with the Chinese company operating the Saindak copper and gold mines for the past 16 years. The first preference will be to retain the contract with the Chinese company for smooth operation and directing the share of profit to the Provincial Government instead of Federal Government. Off course, the Balochistan Government will seek better terms and conditions in the fresh agreement with the Chinese company ensuring sizable revenue to the Provincial Exchequer. The Provincial Government received a nominal royalty and rest of the revenue, all taxes or share of profit were retained by the Federal Government denying other benefits to the province and its most backward region where the copper and gold reserves are located. It remained the real cause of uproar over the natural wealth of Balochistan and the major nationalist political parties had been demanding complete control of the entire natural wealth, mines and minerals, oil and gas and other wealth of the provinces. The highly centralized Government of Pakistan always ignored the just demand for provincial control over resources by the respective provinces paying the legitimate taxes to the Federal Government. The situation had changed once the Federal Government conceded the demand that the provinces should be given greater autonomy ending the Concurrent List of the Constitution with the 18^th Constitutional Amendment unanimously approved by the Parliament. The 18^th Constitutional Amendment had fallen short the right expectations of the Provinces as the entire Concurrent List was not handed over to the Provinces as pledged by the founding fathers at the 1973 Constituent Assembly when the majority MNAs from Balochistan virtually vetoed the Constitution perturbing the rulers at that time. In response to that veto, it was promised the Concurrent List will be handed over to the Provinces after 10 years which never came.

Now the Provincial Government will be assuming greater responsibility when the most prestigious project of Saindak Copper and Gold is being handed over in October next. The Balochistan Government should hire technocrats and experts in running the copper and gold plant relieving the present Chinese company for good as it failed to honour its past commitments. One of the commitments was to establish a refinery for which the Chinese offered soft loan and later on backed out and took the blister copper to China for refining. Thus no one knows the share of gold in the blister copper to this date raising doubt in the mind of the Baloch people that Chinese had fully exploited our resources for 16 long years without any check. Thus the management should be changed and Balochistan Government should directly control the plant for future operation. Neighbouring Iran is also operating similar plants with refinery separating gold from blister copper on the spot. We can take help from the Iranians or other European companies for assistance to operate the plant monopolizing the entire revenue and retaining all the taxes also as an agent of the State of Pakistan. This principle should not be confined to the Saindak Copper and Gold Project; it should also apply for the PPL and OGDCL which should also be handed over to the Balochistan Government in addition to Gwadar deep-water port if the Federal Government or the real rulers of Pakistan want to win over heart and minds of the Baloch people.