18 October 2004	Monday	03 Ramazan 1425

QUETTA, Oct 17: Jamhoori Watan Party leaders have said that the first meeting of the parliamentary committee in Islamabad formed by Senate to resolve issues between federation and provinces was encouraging as the response of major parties - the PML , PPP and MMA - was positive and parties would present their views during future delibrations.

Speaking at a press conference at the press club here on Sunday, Secretary-General of JWP Agha Shahid Bugti and Provincial President Senator Amanullah Kanrani have asserted that if rulers were sincere in sorting out the problem of disharmony between the Centre and provinces then it will be possible to find a workable formula.

They announced that core issue between the federation and its units was provincial autonomy and the federating units' right to have powers over its resources and said that denial of autonomy to provinces was the root cause of dispute.

The JWP leaders said that Baloch leadership had never opposed political dialogues to settle issues, but opportunist rulers had always rulers had never remained serious to solve the problem on permanent basis.

They further said that it was obvious that in present situation no political party enjoyed two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution to resolve the autonomy issue, therefore all political groups in the parliamentary committee would have to adopt a realistic approach to settle autonomy problem through constitutional amendment.

The JWP leaders claimed that first deliberation of the sub-committee of parliamentary committee that has been assigned the constitutional issues was purposeful. But this time, they said, they would give recommendations to the sub-committee so that rulers might not say that we did not cooperate for resolving the issues, they maintained.

Mr Bugti and Mr Kanrani said that the JWP had in 1997 introduced 52 articles in parliament for amendments in the Constitution to settle provincial autonomy issue and other matters between the federation and provinces. He claimed that acceptance of the JWP formula would develop harmony between centre and province.

They said that in Islamabad meeting it was agreed by the participants that in the next gathering the representatives would present their point of view in light of their particular party but participants committed to make efforts for consensus to table unified amendment to resolve autonomy issue in the Constitution.

The JWP, the leaders said, the party would soon release a document about provincial autonomy and other issues, which would reflect the aspirations of the people in the province.