KARACHI, Jan 15: Former federal minister and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, deploring any move to use force to resolve the Balochistan imbroglio, suggested that the problem be solved through peaceful means instead of hurling threats.

In a statement issued here by the Bilawal House media cell, Mr Zardari, expressing concern over the latest developments in Balochistan, said power and force were meant for safeguarding the nation and not subjugating it.

He said if the regime was unable to initiate dialogue with the Baloch leadership, then there were non-controversial popular political leadership, in and outside the parliament and the country, who could hold dialogue with the estranged Baloch leaders for bringing them into the national mainstream and remove misgivings and misunderstandings.

Mr Zardari said the parliamentary committee formed by the government had also failed to provide any breakthrough due to non-serious attitude of the government members, hence the matter needed to be sorted out through the national political parties.

He said that any national reconciliation could not succeed without truly representative democracy, thus political and economic development would remain a farce, for a nation whose government seemed only to be able to create more and more crises instead of resolving any.