QUETTA, May 18: The newly-elected president of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti, has said that his party will attend the multi-party conference (MPC) PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif plans to convene in London.

Addressing a press conference at the Bugti House here on Thursday, he said that if the government lifted restrictions on his visit abroad he himself would attend the MPC. Otherwise other people will represent the JWP at the conference.

He said he would contact Mr Sharif and discuss with him political issues faced by the country because of the ongoing military operation in Balochistan, arrests of political workers, judicial crisis and the Karachi situation.

Condemning the military operation in Balochistan and arrests of political activists, he demanded that extra-constitutional steps be stopped and rights of the provinces be recognised.

The JWP chief expressed concern over the alarming situation in Karachi and stressed that all issues should be settled through dialogue as violence would worsen the situation and endanger national integrity.

Nawabzada Talal said that the JWP would strictly follow the guidelines set by the founder of the party, the late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. He said that Nawab Bugti had struggled for provincial autonomy and for provinces to have powers to control their resources.

He said the centre should retain only four portfolios -- currency, defence, foreign affairs and communications – and transfer all other sectors to the federating units.

He alleged that intelligence agencies had hatched a conspiracy to create differences in the family of Nawab Bugti, and to isolate the JWP in the struggle for the rights of the oppressed masses.

Answering a question, he said that the tribal system had 400 years of history and it could not be eliminated by a stroke of pen, adding that Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had attempted to abolish the Sardari system but failed. The present army ruler, he added, would fail likewise.

He accused the government of deputing special staff of the revenue department in Dera Bugti to change the ownership record of lands of Nawab Akbar Bugti and transfer it to in the names of other persons in violation of law.