QUETTA, May 17: Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani, the chief of Balochistan JUI-F, said here on Friday that the PML-N leadership had offered him to join the next provincial government, adding that a committee of the party would discuss the matter and take a decision after consultations with other parties.

Addressing at a press conference here on Friday, he said he had been contacted by PML-N leaders Sanaullah Zehri and Changez Marri.

According to him, Maulana Abdul Wasey has been appointed JUI-F’s parliamentary leader in the Balochistan Assembly and the head of the four-member committee which will hold talks with other parties on formation of a coalition government in Balochistan. Other members of the committee are: Mufti Abdul Sattar, Maulana Manzoor Mengal and Senator Hafiz Hamdullah. He said that any party had the constitutional and democratic right to form government if it proved majority support in the assembly.

He showed two books of ballot papers which, according to him, proved the rigging had been carried out to defeat JUI-F candidates in the province. He said the ballot papers used for rigging in PB-2, Quetta-2 and PB-6, Quetta-6 constituencies, were found in garbage dump and were not handed over to the authorities concerned. He demanded re-polling in the constituencies.

He alleged that Pakistan Awami Tehrik leader Tahirul Qadri had been brought to Pakistan to hold a long march to sabotage general elections. Later, he said, threats were hurled by Taliban and other militant organisations to prevent the election process. It was a good omen, he added, that elections had been held.