QUETTA: National Party (NP) president Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo has claimed that certain forces have once again started hatching conspiracies against true democratic politicians in the country and predicted that the upcoming general elections may be worse than the 2002 elections, which were held under military dictator retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Speaking at the party’s election office in Turbat on Friday, he claimed that the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) had been established by such forces. But, he said, they would not succeed in their plans to defeat real political and democratic forces in Balochistan.

“BAP will vanish as people of the province will reject it in the upcoming polls,” Mr Bizenjo said, adding that the history had witnessed that people had always rejected such parties.

Citing the examples of PML-Q and PML-F, he claimed that people belonging to these parties were now political orphans.

Former chief minister Dr Malik Baloch, Senator Khuda Akram Dashti, Kech district chairman Fida Hussain Dashti and other NP leaders were present on the occasion.

Talking about law and order situation in Makran, Senator Bizenjo said that after coming into power in the province in 2013, the NP-led government had worked for the establishment of peace.

“In a short period of time we had restored law and order across Balochistan and made all institutions fully functional,” he said, adding that the NP government also provided quality education to children in Makran division and established international-standard universities.

Dr Malik Baloch said that the people of the province were aware of the party’s performance. He claimed that the NP-led government had put Balochistan on the track of development by introducing effective reforms.

“Our government is not responsible for the emergence of BAP. We already knew that a new political party was being established in Balochistan,” he said.

Senator Dashti and other party leaders also spoke on the occasion. They claimed that some forces were trying to sabotage the election process in the province.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2018