Reko Diq: Balochistan must be on board

The relationship between a federation and its federating units is akin to that between a mother and her children. Like a mother, the federation ought to let its federating units grow and prosper without any kind of pampering; but should come to their support, if and when the situation ever arises.
In Pakistan, it was refreshingly nice to see Islamabad starting to act like a sensible mother earlier this year, when it decided to let her children decide their future by giving them the much-delayed and much-needed autonomy.
Executives of Canadian Barrick Gold and Chilean Antofagasta visited Islamabad yesterday- to move on the multibillion dollars copper-gold mines in Reko Diq project, which Balochistan government had halted some months earlier.
Meetings with the Board of Investment and the Government of Balochistan officials led to positive results for the consortium that has conducted pre-feasibility study on the project already.
Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani invited foreign investors to submit a proposal that would be acceptable to the people. Refining capability within the province was a key point as past experience has resulted in exploitation of resources with little benefit to the local people, the absence of which would only create more resentment amongst the Balochis, who, like Shaukat Tarin said, believe that "we have sold our future" as regards the Reko Diq deal.
In an interview with BR Research earlier this year, the former finance minister said his desire was to have a smelter installed within the country so that instead of selling raw copper, processed metal would be exported.
"If we export processed metal, we can fetch up to $500 billion dollars vis-à-vis $40 billion under the existing agreement", Tarin said in January, adding that if we can set up a smelter despite having the fifth largest copper reserves in the world, then whats the point? "The fact is this was a bad contract".
Given the lack of requisite financial and human capital to run a Reko Diq like project in Pakistan, the Balochistan government may wish to renegotiate the contract with the consortium, instead of cancelling it altogether.
Alternatively, they could reinitiate talks with the state-owned Metallurgical Corporation of China Limited (MCC), which had offered to take up the project, but whose offer was turned down by the government in February this year.
In either case, given the political sensitivities and in the spirit of provincial autonomy, the federal government should let the wishes of Balochistans people prevail by helping strike a fair deal between the two parties, instead of backing foreign consortiums due to diplomatic pressures.