DERA GHAZI KHAN: A number of residents of the tribal area Tehsil Sulaiman on Sunday took out a protest rally to condemn the expected merger of the Border Military Police (BMP) and the Punjab police.

The protesters holding banners inscribed with slogans against the government’s plan to merge the two forces, said it would worsen the law and order situation. They said there was a need to equip the BMP with modern arms and training to meet the challenges.

The elders of Mazari, Dareshak, Gorchani, Lound, Leghari, Khosa, Buzdar and Qaisrani tribes residing in the mountainous Takht Sulaiman Tehsil of the district pledged to resist the decision.

PML-N provincial general secretary Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari told the media that the government was destroying the institutions instead of strengthening them. He said the BMP should be improved through modern training, equipment and arms. He said his party would resist the merger of the BMP which is considered the custodian of the Baloch norms.

Former Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani said the tribal people had an agreement with Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that the tribal status of the area would not be changed. He condemned the decision and claimed that the tribal people from Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan would take out a rally to register their protest against the plan.

Former district nazim Javed Khan Qaisrani told Dawn that the Dera Ghazi Khan district council had passed resolution against the merger of the BMP and the Punjab police.

MPA Javed Akhtar Lound also condemned the decision.

In a statement issued later, former federal minister Sardar Awais Leghari said the written agreement to carve out south Punjab province within 100 days by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after coming into power was the first victim of the ‘inability’ of the incumbents, then came the turn of the Fort Munro Development Authority and the South Punjab Forest Company. Now, he said, the rulers were abolishing the BMP.

Mr Leghari said those who claimed to reform the police department in the first 100 days could not do anything even after three years.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2021