09 May 2004	Sunday	18 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

QUETTA, May 8: The Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (Ponam) has said that political issues faced by deprived provinces should be settled through recognition of their rights as suppression of voice by force will push the country towards destabilization.

Speakers at a public meeting in Khuzdar late Friday blamed the rulers and Punjab leadership for denying the rights to Baloch, Pukhtun, Sindhi and Saraiki people and said that they were creating misunderstanding between the federating units.

Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief MNA Mahmood Khan Achakzai, NSF leader Gul Mohammad Jakrani, Saraiki National Party leader Abdul Majid Kanjo, Maulana Azizullah Bhutto, National Party chief organizer Dr Hayee Baloch and BNP-M leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal spoke at the public meeting.

Mr Achakzai said that the oppressed provinces would not compromise on their rights and power sharing should be made in accordance with the 1940 resolution.

He said that their struggle was to keep the country intact.

Mr Mengal said that the Baloch people would have to protect their natural resources and do not let others exploit them.

Dr Baloch said that the rulers were committed to convert the Baloch people into minority in their own province. He denounced the Gwadar port, Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal canal projects.

Mr Kanjo alleged that Saraiki people were not treated equally in Punjab and demanded national rights for them.

Mr Jakrani assured the participants that Sindhis would extend support to the Baloch people in the struggle for their rights.

DISSOLUTION: The All Balochistan Transport Action Committee has demanded dissolution of the oil advisory committee.

According to transporters, the committee is devising wrong policies, that may turn them against the government.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Saturday, transporters body chairman Malik Noor Muhammad Shahwani demanded that either the government should cut oil prices to the October 1999 level or allow them to import petrol and diesel from Iran.

He criticized political parties for their passive attitude towards the oil prices and urged people to support transporters' wheel-jam and shutter-down strike on Wednesday in Balochistan to force the government to fix the oil prices on annual basis instead of fortnightly.

Mr Shahwani rejected the charges that the transporters used Iranian petrol and diesel in buses, coaches and trucks. The smuggled oil was substandard which might damage engines, therefore no wise transporter would take the risk to use this oil, he explained.

He rebutted the claim of the advisory committee that the prices were increased according to the international market. The government had imposed general sale tax (GST) on oil at the behest of the World Bank and this step had increased the prices.

The chairman said the May 12 strike would be a message to the government to dissolve the advisory committee and reduce the oil prices, otherwise the transporters, traders and landlords would launch an indefinite wheel-jam and shutter-down strike from May 16.