ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday instructed two of his cabinet members to travel to the country's southern port city of Gwadar to address the issues faced by its residents.
Gwadar is at the heart of a multibillion-dollar regional connectivity project jointly launched by China and Pakistan. Despite its strategic significance, however, its residents have been protesting for nearly a month to demand their basic rights.
Among other things, these protestors, who are mostly affiliated with border trade and fishing industry, want an end to trawling in the sea along with the removal of a token system to carry out commercial activities along the Pakistan-Iran border.
"The Prime Minister directed the Federal Ministers Asad Umar and Ms. Zubeida Jalal to visit Gwadar as soon as possible so that recommendations could be formulated for quick resolution of the problems of the people of Gwadar," said an official statement issued after the federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The prolonged demonstration in Pakistan's port city located in the province of Balochistan has also been reported by the international media.
The prime minister announced in a Twitter post on Sunday he had "taken notice the very legitimate demands of the hardworking fishermen of Gwadar" while ensuring "strong action against illegal fishing by trawlers" in the Arabian Sea.
His social media post came just a few days after Balochistan's provincial authorities claimed they had addressed most of the demands made by the protestors.
However, the demonstration not only continued in the port city but also intensified, as the female residents of Gwadar poured into the streets to support the monthlong sit-in.
Defending the government's track record in Pakistan's most impoverished Balochistan province, the country's information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain told a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday that the government had announced a sumptuous package for the province amounting to Rs700 billion. This, he added, also included Rs500 billion from the federal administration.
