QUETTA, June 27: The National Party has rejected insinuations that there is a dispute between the Balochs and Pakhtuns of Balochistan and said both communities have been living in peace on their lands in the province for generations.

Addressing a press conference at the Quetta Press Club on Wednesday, NP secretary general Mr Tahir Bizenjo said the Balochs would have no objection if the Pakhtuns of Balochistan decided to establish a separate province for themselves or merge their areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He pointed out that manifestos of the National Party and other Baloch and Pakhtun nationalist parties supported re-demarcation of provinces on linguistic, historical and cultural grounds.

Mr Bizenjo said that instead of blaming the Baloch for miseries of the Pakhtuns the leadership of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party should approach the `establishment’ to get their grievances redressed.

He said the Baloch was an oppressed and powerless nation having no control over natural resources of their province which were being looted by `usurpers’.

He said the Baloch and Pakhtun should identify what he called their common enemy to protect their rights and natural resources.

The NP leader regretted that far-flung parts of the country had been benefiting from the natural gas since it was discovered in Sui area of Dera Bugti in 1952, but there were villages and towns in Balochistan which still remain deprived of this facility.

He claimed that some of the mega projects launched in Balochistan were not meant to benefit locals but to exploit natural resources of the province.