April 22, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1429

QUETTA, April 21: Baloch nationalist groups have said that they will attend the all parties conference proposed by Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the condition that military operation is ended, security forces return to barracks, all political prisoners are released and displaced people are rehabilitated.

Leaders of the National Party, a faction of the Jamhoori Watan Party and Balochistan National Party-M said the government must improve the situation in Balochistan before convening the conference.

National Party chief Dr Hayee Baloch said the coalition government’s lack of seriousness in resolving the Balochistan issue was evident from the fact that it had not been mentioned by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s in his first address in the National Assembly. He said Mr Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif also had not mentioned the issue in the Bhurban Declaration.

He said the government should first stop the military operation, release political detainees, including BNP-M leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal, and abandon the ‘anti-Baloch’ mega projects to restore the confidence of the Baloch people.

Dr Baloch said his party would also discuss the matter with other Baloch political parties and the leadership of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement. He said the Baloch and Pukhtun nationalist parties had boycotted the Feb 18 elections from the platform of the All Parties Democratic Movement and they would take a joint decision about the conference.

BNP-M secretary-general Habib Jalib Baloch said security forces had taken away 70-year-old Haji Mohammad Hussain Pirkani and three other people from Sariab area on April 19, after the formation of the new provincial government in Balochistan. He said that intelligence agencies were hurting the feelings of the Baloch by continuing their excesses.

He asked how could the Baloch people trust the PPP government when security forces were continuing their excesses in Kohlu, Dera Bugti and other areas.

He said attending a conference would be meaningless without withdrawal of security forces.

He said the past experience of holding conferences and forming committees to resolve the issue had been painful and the government should accept the ground realities if it was serious about solving the problem.

Nawabzada Talal Bugti, chief of his own faction of JWP, said his party would not attend the conference if the PML-Q, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) and the BNP-A were invited. He accused the four parties of being involved in the killing of Baloch people in military operation.

He said that convening an all parties conference was easy but it would be difficult to implement decisions which would satisfy the affected people.

He said that if the new government was helpless in getting the Bugti tribesmen who were in the custody of Military Intelligence (MI) released, then why other people detained in prisons without trail were not being freed.

Nawabzada Talal said the government should withdraw security forces from Dera Bugti, stop the construction of a cantonment in Sui town and allow the displaced Bugtis to return to their homeland so that the Baloch people could have trust in Mr Zardari’s desire to resolve the Balochistan issue.

However, the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party termed the move for a political gathering a positive step.

PMAP deputy chairman Senator Abdur Rahim Mandokhel said the country was passing through a crisis. He said convening the conference would be a positive development and his party would attend the deliberations so that all nationalities could get equal rights in the federation.