QUETTA: Jamiat Ulma-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) secretary gen­eral Mau­la­na Abdul Ghafoor Haideri has opposed a recent government decision to strictly implement restriction on the sale and movement of Iranian oil in Balochistan on the ground that the move has rendered thousands of people jobless.

Talking to reporters and a delegation of affected people on Friday, he said that if the government could not provide jobs to the people, it should at least not snatch their only source of livelihood.

“Thousands of people were earning their bread and butter through running Iranian diesel business and with the ban imposed by the provincial government these people have no other option to earn money for their children,” Maulana Haideri said.

The JUI-F leader also expressed concern over what he called having stopped “hundreds of vehicles” carrying Iranian diesel in the Basima area over the past three days. “This situation is creating unrest among the people carrying Iranian diesel,” he warned.

In the wake of a fatal accident involving a pick-up loaded with Iranian oil and causing the death of a senior bureaucrat, the government of Balochistan has reinforced restrictions on the illegal but rampant trade of Iranian oil in the province.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2019