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| June 14, 2006 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1427 |
Ponam not to contest polls held under Musharraf
QUETTA, June 13: Chief of Ponam Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal has said the nationalist alliance will not contest the 2007 elections if held under President Musharraf and that he will be the last Baloch to initiate dialogue with the government.
He said that without participation of people-backed political parties the international community would not accept the elections held by the present set-up.
Talking to newsmen at the Mengal House here on Tuesday, Sardar Mengal claimed that they had presented 15 points in writing to the parliamentary committee led by Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain for resolution of the Balochistan issue but it was ignored in the recommendations of the committee.
He said that though negotiations were part of the political process to resolve issues but the usurpers had taken the people of Balochistan to the point of no return.
Chief of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement claimed that the main reason for distancing himself from the parliamentary committee was the illegal arrests of political workers in Balochistan, adding he had phoned Chaudhary Shujaat to ask the government to stop extra-constitutional methods.
He said that the lukewarm response of the government on unlawful arrests forced the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) to come out of the parliamentary committee in order to protect the fundamental, political and democratic rights of the Baloch people.
Sardar Mengal said that we have not knocked the doors of the rulers to hold talks with us but it were the emissaries of the ruling junta that approached the Baloch leadership to settle issues through negotiations but later they took a U-turn and launched a military operation in the province.
While criticising the army action, he said that President Musharraf apologized on the past military operations in Balochistan but after having made that statement he himself launched a military operation to suppress the political movement. He said it was a futile exercise to crush the struggle, which was backed by the people.
He categorically declared that we would never be held at gunpoint, adding that the government opted for violence and the Baloch although weak would defend their resources and land till the last moment.
About the killing of Chinese engineers, he said that China was emerging as an economic power that confronts them along with other international economic competitors, adding that the clash of interests in the region was the cause of attacks on Chinese workers who were constructing the Gwadar port.
Condemning the blast at the Sariab Road the other day that claimed five lives, he alleged that intelligence agencies were behind it.
He said that people struggling for their rights would not kill their own people rather they would target government functionaries.
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