ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: The combined opposition on Thursday announced that it would boycott National Assembly proceedings on Friday as a mark of protest against the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Speaking at a news conference in the Parliament House cafeteria after staging a walkout from the National Assembly, the opposition leaders condemned Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain for not allowing them to speak on the Balochistan situation despite admitting their adjournment motions.

“The speaker is giving us a message that the opposition has no place in the parliament and that it should go to streets,” said Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP).

Mr Qureshi said the opposition was ready to go to people from a combined platform to inform them that Punjabis, Sindhis, Seraikis and Pashtoons all were with the people of Balochistan and they were united to launch a decisive movement against the regime. He appealed to the people to observe strike on Friday and attend public meetings — in Rawalpindi on September 6 and in Lahore on September 10 — to show their hatred for the present government.

Mr Qureshi said the government had shown an ‘indecent haste’ by killing Nawab Akbar Bugti. He said the nation wanted to know from PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Senator Mushahid Hussain, who had negotiated with late Bugti, as to what were the demands of late Bugti which created a deadlock in the talks. He said why the parliament was not taken into confidence over the talks between the government and Akbar Bugti.

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal said that use of force was no solution to political and constitutional problems. Had use of force been the solution, he said, the problems of Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan would have been resolved much earlier. He said the only fault of the people of Balochistan was that they were demanding their basic and fundamental rights and a share in the resources of the province.

He said the people of Balochistan were not being given Rs515 billion gas royalty. He said the rulers were telling a lie that they had not found the body of Akbar Bugti.

Rauf Mengal of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) claimed that the army had used jets and chemical weapons during the military operation in Kohlu. He said that he had complete proofs to this effect and would take up the matter at international level. He said the statement of Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan that it was good that Bugti had been killed had proved that it was a target killing.

Mr Mengal claimed that bodies of the military officials killed in the operation were not shown even to their relatives. It was a planned operation and Gen Musharraf had gone to Murree to celebrate the killing of Mr Bugti. “Gen Musharraf is a murderer of Bugti and Baloch people,” he said, adding that they would knock the door of world institutions and expose these generals.

Khawaja Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League-N criticised the ministers who were justifying the Kohlu operation and killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. If 160 million people of Pakistan wanted to save the country, they would have to get rid of army generals. Punjab, he said, was not exploiting the small provinces; a common man in Punjab was also deprived of his basic rights. He said it was true that Punjab did not play its role in the past, but now it was ready to play the role of an elder brother.

Replying to a question, the PML-N leader said the country needed a new social contract under which all the provinces should be given autonomy in accordance with the 1973 constitution.

Those who were present on the occasion included Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, Naheed Khan, Fehmida Mirza, Nabil Gabol, Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, Dr Azra Fazal, Syed Zafar Ali Shah and Ijaz Jakhrani.