Balochistan Plunges Deeper into Poverty

March 14, 2026

While resource-rich Balochistan accounts for roughly half of Pakistan’s discovered mineral wealth, the state’s population is amongst the poorest in the country, with human rights suppression adding to the woes of the people along with the economic exploitation.

According to a recent report, the state accounts for 90% of the country’s copper reserves, substantial gold, sizable coal deposits, chromite, barite, marble, and other industrial minerals. Hydrocarbon resources are also significant. Balochistan’s gas fields contribute an estimated 15–20 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP.

According to the Baloch Board of Investment and Trade, the province produces key minerals such as coal, copper, and lead zinc barite, yet revenue and employment from these sectors largely flow to federal structures and private or foreign companies rather than to local communities.

International and local human rights groups have repeatedly documented that major projects, including the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and port city development in Gwadar, prioritise national and foreign strategic interests over local consent and equitable benefit sharing. Baloch activists argue that CPEC and associated mining and energy ventures function as plundering of Balochistan’s resources, with limited local hiring, inadequate environmental safeguards, and forced displacement of communities from land and coastal areas.

The connection between resource exploitation and indigenous rights is visible in Gwadar. The port city, heavily promoted as a CPEC flagship, lacks basic services such as clean drinking water and reliable electricity despite hosting multi billion dollar infrastructure.

Local fishermen, who have relied on the sea for generations, report harassment, restrictions on access to traditional fishing grounds, and loss of livelihoods as commercial and security related projects expand. Simultaneously, Baloch activists and civil society documentation highlight that jobs and contracts around Gwadar and other CPEC corridors are often awarded to non Baloch workers and firms, reinforcing perceptions of economic exclusion and extraction, the article observes.