QUETTA, Sept 11: Opposition leader in Senate Raza Rabbani has said that relinquishing the office of president by General Musharraf and holding transparent polls under an interim set-up were prerequisites to normalisation of political situation, particularly in the face of Balochistan’s deepening crisis.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said the writ of government could not be established through use of helicopter gunships as people recognised a government only after they got political and constitutional rights. Earlier he met and offered condolences to Nawabzada Jamil Bugti and Nawabzada Talal Bugti and offered fateha for Nawab Akbar Bugti.

He said the government should hold dialogues with genuine Baloch leaders to steer Balochistan out of present crisis.

He paid tributes to Nawab Bugti for his political struggle for the people of Balochistan and said the JWP leader had been assassinated because rulers had failed to force him to surrender on their terms. The tragic incident, he said, was purely a doing of ruling elite which had jeopardised the integrity of the state.

Mr Rabbani said that the ARD, right from the beginning, had been stressing the need to sort out the Balochistan crisis politically by initiating dialogues with Baloch leadership but the government always opted for extra-constitutional methods.