ISLAMABAD, March 9: Jan Mohammad Khan Jamali, the outgoing deputy chairman of Senate, said on Friday that Balochistan faced a serious crisis because there was an international conspiracy to force the province to secede.

Speaking to a group of journalists at a reception given in his honour, Senator Jamali, who hails from Balochistan and will retire from the upper house of parliament on March 12, said the problem of forced disappearances and dumping of bullet-riddled bodies would have to be solved immediately before anyone could hope for peace in the country’s largest province.

He warned that Balochistan could “slip out of control” if the federal and provincial governments, political parties, lawmakers and bureaucrats looked on silently as the province continued to burn.

Balochistan would have to be treated at par with other provinces, otherwise the situation in the province would reach a point of no return, Senator Jamali said.

Answering a question, he said leader of the house Nayyar Hussain Bokhari would likely be the next chairman of the Senate, adding that Sabir Baloch of the PPP had emerged as a strong contender for the post of deputy chairman. While each MPA in the province, he said, was getting Rs250 million as development fund, a Senator was given only Rs10 million.