QUETTA: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) on Wednesday night signed a six-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) after a marathon session between Sardar Akhtar Mengal and Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Under the MoU signed by Mr Mengal and Mr Qureshi, the BNP-M will support PTI candidates for the positions of prime minister and speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

Earlier, Mr Qureshi and senior PTI leader Jahangir Tareen arrived here in the afternoon and went straight to Kharan House where they held talks with Mr Mengal, BNP secretary general Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini and others.

Mengal says his party’s alliance with JUI-F in Balochistan to continue

While addressing a joint press conference after signing the agreement, Mr Mengal and Mr Qureshi announced that the two sides had agreed on six points. The six points include recovery of missing persons, implementation of the National Action Plan, implementation of six per cent quota for Balochistan in the federal government, immediate repatriation of Afghan refugees and the construction of dams in the province to resolve the acute water crisis.

Mr Mengal said the promises made with the people of Balochistan, which had not been met over the past 70 years, were presented to the PTI. He said that for the first time the BNP-M signed a six-point agreement with the PTI leadership after detailed negotiations.

As this time it was a written agreement, the BNP-M expressed the hope that the PTI government would work on all the six points, Mr Mengal said, adding that the PTI would be given space to act according to the agreement.

He said the alliance with the PTI was only at the Centre, while the BNP-M’s alliance with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl in Balochis­tan would continue at the provincial level.

Mr Qureshi said he had great respect for Mr Mengal as they had time-honoured relations. He vowed that all the promises made with the BNP-M would be fulfilled.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2018