KARACHI, Sept 4: The National Workers Party has stressed the need for all political forces getting united at one platform, saying this was the only way to save the country. It also urged the political parties to intensify the struggle against the army intervention in politics and for complete provincial autonomy.

“The killing of veteran politician Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in the ongoing military operation in Kohlu has already dismembered the country psychologically. And now, Pakistan’s geographical integrity is in jeopardy with the subject being discussed at every gathering across the country,” said Yusuf Mastikhan , Secretary General of the NWP.

Addressing a press conference along with other party leaders Usman Baloch and Akhtar Hussain at the Karachi Press Club on Monday, he said political forces in the country were striving hard to keep the country intact, but the military rulers were bent upon frustrating their efforts. Accusing the rulers of having signed an agreement with the US Rapid Deployment Force, he claimed that Pakistan army was now being virtually controlled by Gen Abizaid.

He deplored that Pakistan had been turned into a ‘militarised state’ where only GHQ was calling the shots and the rulers were keen to protect only US interests.

In reply to a question, he claimed that Nawab Bugti had been killed when a cluster bomb was dropped by a plane that had taken off from Multan Airport. He also held the rulers responsible for the abrupt halt to the dialogue process before the situation in Balochistan aggravated.

Mr Mastikhan said that Nawab Bugti had focused his struggle on provincial autonomy and he had started the same with the demand for the regularisation of the gas company employees hailing from Balochistan. Later, in Dr Shazia’s case, Akbar Bugti demanded justice, calling for punishment to all those involved, the NWP leader recalled. Instead of considering his demand, Gen Pervez Musharraf resorted to giving a statement abroad that had brought a bad name to the country, he added.

He pointed out that Nawab Bugti was not only the chieftain of his tribe, but also the head of a political party, the Jamhoori Watan Party, that had representation in the Senate, National Assembly and Balochistan Assembly. It was Bugti who had moved the bill in the Senate on provincial autonomy in 1984. Furthermore, he demanded granting of autonomy when the then prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, sought his support in the latter’s intention to amend the Article 58-2(B) of the constitution.

In reply to another question, Mr Mastikhan recalled that before the Partition, Balochistan was a sovereign state and not a province. The Khan of Kalat, who had agreed to the accession of Balochistan to the federation of Pakistan in1948, had also done this on the condition that the state’s entity would remain unchanged and it would have its own flag.

The NWP leader observed that the way the people of three provinces, particularly Balochistan, reacted to the killing of Nawab Bugti, had made it amply clear that masses would not allow the rulers to repeat the mistake of 1971. He pointed out that even the Pakistanis living in London had taken to the street against the military rulers’ act of eliminating the Baloch leader.

He said that the movement in Balochistan was a nationalist one, and not a racial struggle. Despite being subjected to five military operations, the people of Balochistan continued their movement, he noted, and regretted that the federation was persistently denying grant of autonomy to that province or the other federating units.