ISLAMABAD: The ongoing political crisis in Balochistan has been termed an attempt to decrease the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s strength in the Senate during the next elections of the upper house.

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, PML-N leader and Balochistan chief minister’s spokesperson Jan Achakzai blamed the PML-Q and Pakistan Peoples Party for creating the situation and said that this kind of tactics would create unrest in the province.

“There should be political stability in Balochistan to deal with internal and external threats. Differences among the party leaders and workers are not an unusual thing, but the situation never reached such an extent in Balochistan,” he said.

Mr Achakzai claimed that the civil-military relations were normal and all the speculation and rumours about them were baseless.

“In fact, political rivals have been trying to use our party leaders and workers in Balochistan and the goal behind it is to reduce the seats of PML-N in the next Senate elections. Those who have moved the no-confidence motion should be aware that they are going against party line and policy,” he said.

He said Pakistan had been passing through sensitive times as on the one hand there was the issue of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and on the other US President Donald Trump had been giving threatening messages. “Any change in the political leadership will not be in the interest of the country,” he said.

He said that those who were playing a role in the political crisis in Balochistan were supporting the agenda of enemies of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2018