QUETTA, April 1: The PONM leaders have claimed that Thursday’s strike by the people represented a rejection of Musharraf government’s policies on Kalabagh dam, Greater Thal canal, new cantonments and mega projects, and vowed to continue their struggle against “autocracy”. Speaking at a joint press conference here on Friday, they declared that the country’s integrity was linked with the recognition of national rights of Balochs, Pakhtuns, Sindhis and Seraikis.

Dr Hayee Baloch, chief of the National Party, alleged that the federal and provincial governments used state apparatus to make the strike a failure but the people of Balochistan, Sindh and ‘Pakhtunkhwa’ foiled the ‘conspiracy’. He described the strike “from Zhob to Gwadar” as unprecedented.

“It was a clear message to the rulers to stop military actions and abandon controversial projects which were unacceptable to the oppressed nationalities,” he said. Denouncing the killing of tribesmen in Dera Bugti and Wana, and raids on the Marri Camp and Killi Qamrani, he said violence against innocent people would not force nationalists to bow down.

Referring to the Gwadar incident, the PONM leader claimed that the local population resisted the Coast Guards’ atrocities due to which the town remained in turmoil for three days. The government had to bend to people’s will in the end.

On the one hand, the “usurpers” are intent on establishing cantonments at a cost of billions of rupees without seeking people’s consent, and on the other they are least interested in providing funds for the rehabilitation of drought affectees, Dr Hayee said.

“Their logic is beyond our comprehension,” he said. He warned the government that the situation was changing fast and the ad-hoc policies could not satisfy oppressed people. “The national rights of deprived provinces should be recognized so that they could have control over their resources.”

Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal, parliamentary leader of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, criticized the arrests of PONM activists in Quetta, Pishin, Dera Murad Jamali, Hub, Peshawar and Karachi.