ISLAMABAD, Aug 20: The People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPP) has demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to extend the date for registration of voters by another two months to give a chance to 70 per cent of the population not holding Nadra’s identity cards to get enlisted.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, former federal minister and PPP vice chairman Mir Baz Khan Khitran said only 30 per cent of the population eligible to cast votes possessed the Nadra’s identity cards, a prerequisite for registration as a voter.

Mr Khitran also alleged that stage was being set for massive rigging in the next year’s general elections through unprecedented forgery in the registration process of the voters.

He also demanded that Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto be allowed to come back and take part in the next year’s general elections. He said all the “false” political cases against Ms Bhutto should also be withdrawn immediately.

In response to a question, he said about 5,000 political activists had so far been arrested by secret agencies in Balochistan on false charges of terrorism and sectarianism.

The government, he said, was making futile efforts to relate terrorists and extremists to Balochistan to give a wrong impression to the world that the province produced and supported terrorism, and to keep its illegitimate military operation going in the province against innocent citizens.

Dialogue, he said, was the sole solution to the simmering tension in Balochistan and those who loved Pakistan and its unity could never give advice to the government to continue its operation.

He said even Jamhoori Watan Party leader Nawab Akbar Bugti should be contacted for a purposeful dialogue to put an end to the conflict that was not only eating away taxpayer’s money but also the lives of the low-ranking armymen and poor Balochis.

Money being spent on keeping alive the tension in Balochistan could be gauged from the fact that five to 10 vehicles with armed security guards accompanied the convoy of an army major. The resources could be purposeful utilised by ensuring peace and harmony in the province through judicious political decision, which could never be taken by any military dictator but political leaders and representatives of the people.

He said mega projects in Balochistan were considered by people as “mega scandals”, adding that the people had many reasons to think so. He said the people had never opposed any development projects but they never loved to adopt a hands-up approach towards seeing their rights being usurped in the name of development.

The level of development was such that half of the Coastal Highway had been swept away by the recent floods and monsoon rains.

He said a situation similar to that of East Pakistan was being repeated in Balochistan and it seemed that the government had not learnt any lesson from the nation’s recent past when the country was halved.

He said the Baloch Sardars with whom Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held meetings and discussed development projects were not the true representatives of the people of Pakistan.