May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

KARACHI, May 4: The secretary-general of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), Habib Jalib Baloch, has alleged that the government is paying mere lip-service about the withdrawal of cases against Sardar Akhtar Mengal and Baloch leaders and is not sincere in its assertions.

He said if the authorities had been sincere in their claims, the relevant home and law departments would have been notified accordingly so as to facilitate the withdrawal of cases.

The Baloch leader was talking to Dawn over the telephone from Quetta. He said that keeping in view the current situation, the recent statement of the prime minister regarding the Baloch leaders’ release appeared to be just another political gimmick.

The BNP office-bearer said that there was a set procedure to initiate the process of withdrawal of cases. The home department, he added, was required to seek legal opinion from the law department and subsequently withdrawal letters were dispatched to the district attorney. Mr Baloch said that so far none of the district attorneys had received withdrawal letters from the home departments of Balochistan and Sindh where cases against the former chief minister of Balochistan, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, and others had been registered.

The BNP leader, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, currently admitted to the Liaquat National Hospital is still in police custody and scheduled to appear in court on May 6 in connection with a trail he is facing on charges of taking hostage two officials of the Military Intelligence (MI) and torturing them in his house in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). An FIR (170/2006) was registered against him at the Darakhshan police station. Four servants of Sardar Mengal have already been convicted in the case.

“We have learnt that the home and law departments of the Sindh government have also not initiated the procedure required for the withdrawal of the cases”, Mr Baloch told Dawn.