News Desk
DERA BUGTI, Balochistan — The gas wells that once defined this district are falling silent. Production has slowed, reserves are dwindling, and companies that once dominated the landscape are pulling out. For Pakistan, the decline marks the end of an era. For the people of Dera Bugti, it is another chapter in a long story of neglect — one that leaves behind ruins and resentment.
When gas was discovered in Sui in 1952, it was hailed as a national triumph. The fields of Dera Bugti became the backbone of Pakistan’s energy grid, supplying fuel to Karachi’s industries, Lahore’s households, and Islamabad’s offices. For decades, companies operated here with the promise of prosperity.
But as reserves decline, those companies are retreating. Offices are shuttered, workers dismissed, and installations abandoned. The infrastructure left behind — rusting pipelines, crumbling buildings, and deserted compounds — has become a symbol of broken promises.
For residents, the corporate exit is not just an economic blow but a moral one. “We sacrificed our land for the nation,” said a farmer in Loti. “Now the companies are gone, and we are left with nothing.”
The district’s economy never diversified, tethered entirely to gas. With companies leaving, unemployment is rising. Small businesses that depended on the industry are collapsing. Families face a future defined by scarcity.
The absence of development is visible in everyday life. Children walk miles to reach makeshift schools, often without books or teachers. Women give birth at home, without medical care, risking their lives. Families rely on brackish wells or tanker deliveries for water, fueling disease and despair.
The irony is bitter. Gas pipelines once crisscrossed the district, carrying energy to distant cities. But water pipelines, promised for decades, never materialized.
Successive governments promised that royalties from gas would fund schools, hospitals, and roads in Balochistan. Contracts were signed, budgets allocated, and announcements made. Yet in Dera Bugti, most of those projects remain unfinished or abandoned.
Schools stand half-built, their walls cracked and roofs missing. Clinics exist only on paper. Roads lead to gas installations but bypass villages. “Every election brings new promises,” said a teacher in Pir Koh. “But the only thing we see are ruins.”
The neglect has fueled resentment and insurgency. Militants target pipelines and installations, seeing them as symbols of exploitation. Each attack prompts the state to tighten security, often militarizing the district, but rarely addressing the underlying deprivation.
For residents, the presence of armed guards around gas facilities is a daily reminder that the wealth beneath their soil was protected for outsiders, not for them. “We guarded the pipelines,” said a young man in Sui, “but our own homes remained in darkness.”
In national debates, Balochistan’s plight is rarely discussed. The province is seen as a resource hub, not a community. Its minerals are symbols of national pride, but its poverty is treated as a local inconvenience.
Yet the story of Dera Bugti is emblematic of a larger challenge: how to balance national development with local justice. Without addressing the inequities of resource distribution, Pakistan risks deepening the very divisions that have long haunted its federation.
Decades of promises have yielded little. Development funds vanished into contracts and kickbacks, while basic services never arrived. The gas fields, once symbols of national pride, have become reminders of neglect.
For the families who still cook over wood fires and drink from dirty wells, the irony is cruel. Their land fueled the nation, but the companies have left them with ruins.
In Balochistan, the exit of gas companies has left behind not prosperity, but resentment.
