Socio-Eco Packages and Environmental Factors – An Analysis from Balochistan

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the Socio-Economic packages announced over the past two decades for Balochistan by the Federal Government / State on Political, Social, Economic, Security, and other environmental factors, predicting the future of the province. It adopts a qualitative research design with a historical, descriptive approach using interview-based primary data collection along with the study of published and unpublished documents of government and private sources. Since the rise of President Gen (R) Pervaiz Musharaf to the premier office of Pakistan, the Federal Government undertook five ventures to support Balochistan on its way to progress. However, mismanagement and bad governance failed the very spirit of the initiatives, and the results couldn’t be achieved. The findings of the study conclude that the announcement of socio-eco packages would have proved to be beneficial towards achieving specific goals set if the welfare and development schemes had been carried out and monitored through agencies/intermediaries other than the local political or parliamentary leadership. Environmental factors, especially political factors, are directly impacted by the implementation of these packages. This study presented its analyses by interviewing the people linked with academia and the administration only owing to time constraints. However, future research should include the views of other groups directly or indirectly linked with the prevailing situation in the province, thus addressing the limitations of the present study.