ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq on Saturday said his party had decided to initiate national dialogue on the issue of provincial autonomy in an effort to develop consensus on this important national issue.

Speaking at a news conference with the party’s information secretary, Ahsan Iqbal, the PML-N chairman said the party chief, Nawaz Sharif, had started making contacts with other opposition parties to materialise the plan.

Mr Haq said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had himself admitted in a recent TV interview that the federation was weaker than it was seven years ago.

Criticising the Balochistan policy of the rulers, he said a number of people had been picked up from the province without presenting them before any court.

He said the government had itself stated that foreign hand was involved in the province.

Mr Haq said foreign powers only intervened if internal policies of a country failed. He said this happened in the past when India took advantage of the wrong policies in East Pakistan.

He regretted that the rulers had not learnt any lesson from history.

Without naming the army, the PML-N leader said the institution which was ruling the country was above accountability. He said the rulers only wanted to resolve the issues through use of force.

Mr Haq also criticised the Afghan and Kashmir policies of the regime.

He said even a report of the International Crisis Group had held Pakistan responsible for the worsening situation in Afghanistan. He said it was due to the wrong policies of the rulers that Afghan people had started hating Pakistan.

Mr Haq warned that Pakistan would face an unaffordable disaster if the present rulers were allowed to continue their rule.