25 January 2005	Tuesday	14 Zilhaj 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and chairman of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan, is scheduled to meet the president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations' Movement (Ponam) , Mr Ataullah Mengal, in Karachi on Tuesday.

Chaudhry Shujaat will proceed to Karachi from Lahore where he will be joined by party secretary-general and head of the parliamentary sub-committee on Balochistan, Mr Mushahid Hussain Syed.

The PML leader is said to have played an important role in persuading the government to actively strive to find a political solution to the Balochistan issue. PML information secretary and minister of state Senator Tariq Azim said on Monday that Chaudhry Shujaat might be joined by other members of the parliamentary committee in his meeting with Mr Mengal.

He said the party chief would return to Islamabad after the meeting and was expected to hold talks with other Baloch leaders in the federal capital. It was reported earlier that the Shujaat-led team would first go to Quetta for talks with Nawab Akbar Bugti and other leaders.

It is learnt that the programme was changed when Nawab Bugti reportedly declined to talk to anyone from Islamabad except a 'uniformed' official saying that only the army establishment was powerful enough to reach an accord on Balochistan on the basis of 'give and take'.