QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly, through a unanimously adopted resolution, condemned on Monday the suicide attacks on two churches in Lahore and lynching of two men by an angry mob and urged political parties to try to rid the country of violence.

The joint resolution of William John Barkat and Ghansham Das was passed by the house with an amendment proposed by Jaffar Khan Mandokhel.

Speaking on the resolution, legislators said that the grieving residents of Yohannaabad had the right to protest but they should not have attacked innocent people.

Know more: Lahore lynching victim identified as local glass cutter

They said it was not the first incident of its kind in the country as in the past terrorists had made similar attacks on mosques, Imambargahs, funeral processions and schools but grieving people had not taken the law in their own hands as was seen on Sunday. Islam is a universal religion and it guarantees the protection of minorities, they said and added that political and religious parties of the country had always endorsed the right of minorities to live peacefully.

Those who took part in the debate included Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai, Mr Mandokhel, Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, Haji Gul Mohammad Dumar, Maulana Wasay, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai, Rehmat Baloch, Dr Shama Ishaq and Shahida Rauf

Speaker Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali, who presided over the session, summoned the chief executive officer of the Mari Gas Company of Zarghun Ghar to satisfy the house as to why the local people were not being recruited by the company. He gave the ruling on a point of order raised by Mr Dumar.

The lawmaker claimed that the management of the company had promised jobs for local people during gas exploration but it was hiring manpower from other provinces.

On another point of order raised by Syed Liaquat Agha, the speaker formed a two-member committee headed by provincial minister Hamid Achakzai to submit a report in two weeks about the alleged laying of defective sewerage pipeline in Quetta.

The Leader of Opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, Maulana Wasay, criticised the large size of a delegation led by Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch which had gone to France to settle a dispute over Reko Diq copper-cum-gold project and deplored that opposition members had not taken into confidence in this regard.

Ministers Achakzai and Ziaratwal dismissed hue and cry raised by the opposition leader and said that the delegation had gone to France to resolve the Reko Diq issue and that the house would be informed about efforts made by it after its return from abroad.

The session was prorogued for an indefinite period.

Published in Dawn March 17th , 2015

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