QUETTA: The Balochistan government has imposed a ban on the transportation of diesel and other petroleum products through passenger buses and decided to take action against transporters found involved in this business.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the provincial cabinet held on Monday. Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch was in the chair.

It was the first meeting of the cabinet after coalition partners in the province resolved their disputes at a marathon session between PML-N ministers and the MPAs supporting the chief minister.

Senior Minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri and ministers belonging to all the three coalition partners attended the meeting.

The cabinet took note of Saturday’s accident near Hub which claimed 35 lives.

The meeting observed that the cause of most deaths was the fire that engulfed the vehicles because one or two of them carried smuggled oil from Iran.

“Highly flammable petroleum products, including petrol, diesel and gas cylinders, cannot be allowed to be transported through passenger buses,” the chief minister said.

Deploring oil smuggling, Chief Minister Malik Baloch ordered law enforcement agencies to take action against owners of passenger buses involved in the transportation of petroleum products.

Members of the cabinet expressed sorrow over the loss of lives in the accident.

DUAL NATIONALITY: The cabinet discussed the proposed amendment in the constitution on dual nationality and observed that the existing law on the subject should remain in effect and it should also be applied to government officials and judges along with parliamentarians.

The cabinet approved a bill pertaining to preserving government records, archives and historical documents. It would be tabled during the ongoing session of the Balochistan Assembly. It gave approval for the formation of a board to supervise the preservation of antiques.

It approved release of funds for ongoing projects of Public Health Engineering and purchase of required spare parts for machinery.

The cabinet reached consensus on the proposed amendment in the local government rules.

The cabinet was informed that there was no ban on recruitment in government departments. “We have directed all departments to initiate recruitment against vacant posts from BPS-1 to 16,” the chief minister said.

The recruitment would be made at the district level and candidates would not need to travel to Quetta.

The authorities concerned have been directed to form recruitment committees of their departments for the purpose, he added.He said the Service and General Department had been asked to contact the Establishment Division for getting lifted the ban on federal government jobs in Balochistan.

The additional chief secretary (development) told the meeting that funds were needed to complete two ongoing projects of residential colonies for the Christian community.

One of the residential projects was funded by the federal government and 80 per cent work on this project had been completed, the secretary said, adding that the provincial Public Sector Development Programme funds were required to complete the other scheme.

The cabinet approved inclusion of the two projects in the PSDP for next budget.

The cabinet also gave approval to the Balochistan Private Money Lending Bill.