QUETTA: Emphasizing agriculture as the province’s economic backbone, Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Mir Ali Hassan Zehri has directed officials to ensure the timely completion of all ongoing development projects to directly benefit farmers and landowners. He stated that developing the sector on modern lines is a top priority for the government.
The minister issued these directives while chairing a high-level meeting to review the progress of the department’s development projects. The session was attended by Secretary Agriculture and Cooperatives Noor Ahmed Parkani, all Director Generals of the department, and other senior officials.
Secretary Parkani briefed the minister on the department’s overall performance and implementation of past decisions, underscoring that agriculture is pivotal to the province’s economic development. “If agriculture develops, the province will also move towards development,” Parkani stated. Each DG provided a detailed briefing on their respective sectors, including performance updates, challenges faced, and specifics of all development projects for the financial year 2025-26.
Minister Zehri articulated a clear vision linking provincial progress directly to agricultural advancement. “If our province has to develop economically, it is inevitable to develop the agriculture sector,” he asserted. He highlighted that a prosperous agricultural sector would uplift individual landowners and create positive ripple effects across Balochistan, as the sector is directly or indirectly linked to every resident.
Aligning his agenda with the vision of President Asif Ali Zardari, Zehri stated the goal is a developed and prosperous Balochistan, requiring the removal of all obstacles to growth. He called for a unified effort to modernize the agriculture department, stressing, “We have to work together to align the agriculture department with the requirements of the present era.” The minister concluded that only through collective responsibility and hard work could the sector be transformed to benefit every citizen of the province.
Meanwhiel in a stark reminder of the perilous conditions faced by laborers in Balochistan’s mining sector, two miners were killed on Thursday following a sudden mudslide inside a coal mine in the Shahrag area. The incident has once again cast a grim spotlight on the chronic issues of safety and regulation in the region’s extensive but often hazardous coal mining industry.
