Our Correspondent

ZHOB: A complete shutter-down strike was observed here in Zhob against diversion of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor route on Sunday.

Strike call was given by Trade union and supported by All Parties Action Committee Zhob. During strike shops, markets and commercial centers remained shut.

A protest demonstration was also held where protesters raised slogans against the federal government’s decision of changing Gwadar-Kashgar route from Balochistan to Punjab .

Addressing at Maulana Shams-ud-Din Shaheed chowk president trade union Haji Juma Rahim, Anwer Jan, Baloch Khan and others termed the decision of the route change tantamount to economic-genocide of Pashtoon-Baloch and said that the new plan was to subjugate right of the people of Balochistan.

They said that 2,395km proposed highway from Gwadar to Kashgar was aimed at boosting trade between Pakistan , China and Central Asian states, if it would commission on previous plan, then could open new vista of opportunities on economic, trade and industrial sector and expected to change the fate of the people residing along the route in Balochistan. But the new route they said was 350-400 kilometers long against the proposed original route of the project.  They said.

It to worth mentioning that previously, the rout was planned to pass through Gwadar, Quetta, Zhob, Dera Ismail Khan and Mianwali, but now a plan has been made to divert it through Gwadar, Khuzdar, Jacobabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and Hasan Abdal.