QUETTA: A day after boycotting the federal cabinet meeting over the issue of Reko Diq, Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) President Sardar Akhtar Mengal has decided to convene his party’s central executive committee meeting to take a final decision about quitting the coalition government.

A senior party leader said the date for the CEC would be announced within a couple of days as negotiations between Mr Mengal and the cabinet committee formed by the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif the other day, were in progress in Islamabad over reservations on the recently bulldozed legislation pertaining to foreign investment.

Mr Mengal and his party opposed the legislation on Reko Diq in the parliament and adopting constitutional resolutions in the Balochistan Assembly, saying that the federal government had not taken the BNP-M into confidence on the bills passed in the Senate and National Assembly.

He indicated in a TV show that if the issue was not resolved, the BNP-M might part ways with the PML-N-led coalition government.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022