KARACHI: Balochistan issue bypassed in London meeting: NP
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 25: The National Party leader, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, said that the meeting of two leaders in London was a good omen and a positive step in the democratic struggle of the people, who have been striving against military dictatorship for many years.
But at the same time, the NP leader said he was shocked that both the leaders had totally ignored Balochistan which was one of the dominating issues of the country’s politics at present.
He said that his party firmly believed in the sovereignty of people and supremacy of parliament and had been constantly struggling for these objectives. However, he said that democracy could not flourish in the country without recognising the sovereign rights of the federating units.
He said that the Baloch people fighting for their politico-economic rights were being punished for raising their voice against injustices and their leaders were being branded as traitors. Baloch political workers were being kidnapped by agencies and many of them were missing as their whereabouts could not be known yet, he added.
The National Party leader maintained that villages in Balochistan were devastated as a result of aerial bombardment and a large number of people had left their homes. By and large the infrastructure of the province had been damaged because of armed conflict, he added.
The Baloch leader was of the view that decentralisation of the powers among the federating units was the key issue in the today’s democratic politics of the country which had been totally ignored by the ARD leaders. He reminded them that Baloch parties and workers had been playing a pivotal role in the democratic struggle of the country and they had been subjected to torture and coercion by the government agencies only because they were committed to their democratic rights.
He suggested a two-point strategy for the future struggle of democratic rights of the people: democracy and complete autonomy to the existing federating units.
The NP leader said that the country could not be kept intact by any authoritative rule and called for delegating sovereign powers to the provinces to decide their future political priorities and economic management.
He said that the existing system based on exploitation and domination of one province could no longer stay and added that all nationalist and democratic forces of the province were united against tyranny of the military rulers.
Reminding the ARD leaders, the NP leader said it was not the first time that a military operation had been launched in the province, saying that the Baloch people had been subjected to such operations four times in the past, and they were still resisting it.
