ISLAMABAD: A delegation of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) led by its president Sardar Akhtar Mengal called on Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani here on Sunday.

BNP-M Senator Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini, MNA Isa Noori and former MNA Abdul Rauf Mengal accompanied their party president.

Sources in the Senate Secretariat told Dawn that the political situation in the country, particularly in Balochistan, came under discussion during the meeting.

The BNP-M leaders informed Mr Rabbani about their grievances and concerns over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying that people of Balochistan should not be deprived of their right to benefit from the project.

They were of the view that since Gwadar port, which was an integral part of the project, belonged to Balochistan the people of the province should be given their due share in the CPEC projects.

Mr Rabbani, according to the sources, suggested to the BNP-M leadership to use parliament as their tools to highlight their grievances and seek their redressal.

Mr Mengal while talking to reporters after his meeting with PTI Chairman Imran Khan in Islamabad on Thursday had expressed the fear that the fate of the CPEC would not be different from that of the Kalabagh dam project if concerns of Baloch people remained unaddressed.

“Our concerns on the CPEC project are similar to those the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have on the Kalabagh dam,” he had said. Mr Mengal also said that he had planned a multi-party conference on the CPEC on Jan 10.

The BNP-M chief had regretted that the role of the establishment in Balochistan had not changed even after the present government came to power.

He had criticised security agencies’ actions in Balochistan and urged the media to concentrate on what he called “miseries of Baloch people”.

Mr Rabbani while speaking at a seminar on human rights in Karachi on Saturday had proclaimed that “actual power in Pakistan lies with the civil and military bureaucracy”.

He had stated that they needed to identify the forces which had distorted the ideology of Pakistan and changed it from originally being a welfare state to a national security state.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2015