The unfortunate incident of three gas pipelines blown up near Rahim Yar Khan, cutting supplies to the country’s most economically important province Punjab, is strongly condemnable and casts a shadow on the million of households and commercial consumers across the province. According to the government officials, separatist rebels from Balochistan were behind this attack.
We all know that the Baloch rebels are fighting for the independence of Balochistan and they accuse the federal government of looting the province’s rich mineral resources, leaving its people to live in poverty but the rebels must acknowledge the fact that blowing up pipelines is not the right way to gain what they want. The miscreants must realise the fact that it is not the government which suffers from such attacks but innocent people. It is also true that the successive governments have avoided approaching the Baluchistan masses directly and have dealt with the problems through Sardars. We all know how effective that was.
It is time that the common man is directly approached by the government so that they can solve the social and economic problems. The solution lies in sincere efforts by the government to resolve the Balochistan issue at the earliest, otherwise people will continue suffering.
SYED ALI QASIM,
Lahore, February 17.