QUETTA: Senator Israrullah Zehri, president of the Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A), has said that before conducting census in Balochistan, the government should ensure that all Baloch people are issued their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) because hundreds of thousands in the province do not have the card.

Talking to journalists on Saturday, he said that issuance of the CNICs to Baloch people was crucial for recording actual population of the Baloch in the province.

“Protecting national identity of Baloch people is the responsibility of their leadership,” Senator Zehri said.

After creation of Bangladesh, rights of Bengali people living in Pakistan were protected and the same was done with Afghan refugees, he said.

But Baloch people are still deprived of basic rights though they have been living in the province since before 1947. In Islam, he said, even slaves had rights but Baloch people had been deprived of their rights.

Senator Zehri said that the Constitution ensured basic rights of the citizens but “our people are still struggling for their rights enshrined in the Constitution”.

He said it was the responsibility of the state to ensure rights of all the “nationalities” living in Pakistan.

The BNP-A president expressed apprehensions about conducting census without issuing the CNICs to all the Baloch people living in different areas of the province.

“If this is not done, Baloch people will be converted into a minority in their own province,” he warned.

He appealed to the authorities concerned to facilitate all Baloch people not having CNICs in getting their identity cards.

“This is the only way to prevent the Baloch from being turned into a minority in their province.”

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2017