QUETTA: Leaders of opposition parties in the Balochistan Assembly have threatened to block all highways across the province on Thursday (today) to protest against the government for ignoring their proposals in the upcoming budget.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday evening in the sit-in camp set up in front of the assembly building, they alleged that the coalition government headed by Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan had been spending development funds allocated for projects in their constituencies through non-elected people for the last three years.

Opposition leader Malik Sikandar Khan Advocate, parliamentary leader of the Balochistan National Party Malik Naseer Ahmad Shahwani, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PkMAP) Nasrullah Zerey and others who staged the sit-in said that development projects suggested by the opposition members for their constituencies were not included in the budget for financial year 2021-22 which will be presented on June 18.

Say politics of lies and fraud is over

“We will cordon off the assembly on June 18 when the budget will be presented,” they announced.

The BNP’s acting president Malik Abdul Wali Kakar, Dr Hamid Achakzai of PkMAP and Abdul Qahar Wadan were present on the occasion.

The opposition leaders said that representatives of half of Balochistan’s population were on the streets. People in opposition MPAs’ constituencies are demanding facilities and solution to problems related to water supply, education, electricity, gas, health and education.

They said that the rights of people in opposition members’ constituencies were being violated.

Development funds worth billions of rupees were being spent through unelected people, they added.

“Opposition parties have decided that if the government does not include our proposals in the budget, national highways across the province will be closed on June 17,” they announced.

“The Balochistan Assembly will be cordoned off on June 18,” they said and added that the “politics of lies and fraud is over; if rights are not given, our protest will continue”.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2021