September 05, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 04, 1429

QUETTA, Sept 4: PML-Q presidential candidate Mushahid Hussain Sayed has asked the government to respond positively to the unilateral ceasefire announced by Baloch militants and resolve the Balochistan issue through dialogue.

Addressing a press conference, along with PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, here on Thursday, he said the announcement by the Baloch Liberation Army, Baloch Revolutionary Army and Baloch Liberation Front to cease their armed activities was a good development.

He urged the government to stop immediately the military operation and hold talks with militants.

Mr Mushahid said that his party believed in reconciliation, consultations and negotiations to settle issues because victimisation, persecution and horse-trading had destabilised the democratic institutions.

He said he had invited Asif Ali Zardari for a live TV debate on issues faced by the nation so that the people and legislators would know who deserved to be elected to the president’s office, but the PPP candidate did not accept the challenge.

He said that the serious challenges for the next president would include the Balochistan issue, provincial autonomy and a new NFC award. The president, being a symbol of the federation, should be a person who can protect the rights of all provinces.

He asserted that a committee headed by himself had held consultations with Nawab Akbar Bugti and other nationalist leaders and prepared a report that was accepted also by Asma Jahangir of the HRCP, but it could not be implemented due to pressures from hawks in the establishment.

He said that although his party supported former president Pervaiz Musharraf till the end, but it was on record that “we had differences with him on extra-constitutional measures taken in Balochistan, attack on Lal Masjid and the judiciary issue”.

Mushahid Hussain claimed that he was the only senator who had demanded release of Mr Zardari, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Javed Hashmi without bothering about Musharraf’s displeasure.

He said that if elected he would repeal Article 58 (2)b and the National Reconciliation Ordinance to strengthen the parliamentary system and to ensure that everybody was held accountable before an independent judiciary.

He warned that if Mr Zardari was elected president there would be confrontation between the centre and the Punjab government which would destabilise the democratic process.

Chaudhry Shujaat said the government had failed to launch any new development project in Balochistan and it had been carrying out the mega projects of the previous government which showed that it had no programme for the province.

He said he had not come to Quetta to seek votes but to show that his party could survive without the backing of the establishment. The warm reception by hundreds of workers, he said, had proved his rivals wrong.

He said that his party had not fielded any covering candidate because Mushahid Hussain had the credentials of a man of integrity.