QUETTA, Dec 6: Senator Malik Sarwar Khan, a senior leader of the PML-Q and chairman of the Senate standing committee on local bodies and rural development, has appealed to President Pervez Musharraf to remove the grievances of the nationalist parties during his visit to the province. The president is due in the provincial capital on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference at the Quetta Press Club on Wednesday, he said as a gesture of goodwill the president should announce the release of all people taken into custody during the nationalist parties’ campaign against the government, besides announcing the resolution of all issues through dialogue.

Mr Kakar appealed to the government and nationalists to show flexibility in their stands so that all problems of the province could be resolved peacefully. The PML-Q leader said most of the people were moderate and peace-loving and there was no place for extremism, terrorism and narrow-mindedness in the country.

He claimed that President Pervez Musharraf had given serious importance to the development of Balochistan and it was due to his vision and policies that the province had been put on the road to progress.

He said there was no doubt that the people of Balochistan had some genuine complaints against the federal government but such matters should only be resolved through dialogue.

The PML-Q leader welcomed the agreement between Luni and Marri tribes in Chamalang, adding that the agreement would be beneficial for the province as well as for the country. Mr Kakar said that Balochistan was a bi-ethnic province of the Baloch and Pakhtun but the latter felt a sense of deprivation as far as development funds and projects were concerned. The government should try to remove this impression.

He appealed to the people to accord the president a warm welcome on Thursday.