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Published 25 Nov, 2009 12:00am

Balochistan nationalists reject package

QUETTA, Nov 24 The Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Baloch National Front, National Party, Jamhoori Watan Party (Talal), Anjuman Ittehad Marri and Baloch Students' Organisation (Azad) have rejected the package tabled by the government in a joint session of both houses of parliament on Tuesday.

They said the main objective of Baloch people's struggle was recognition of their right of ownership of the resources and coast of Balochistan.

BNP-M secretary general Habib Jalib Baloch described the package as a mockery and said the Baloch did not want mega projects. He said that while work on such projects would continue, the province would get 'peanuts' in revenue share.

He said the BNP-M wanted sovereign autonomy for Balochistan so that it controlled its resources.

The autonomy promised in the package, he said, was confined to subjects on the concurrent list.

Baloch National Front's deputy secretary general Sadiq Raisani said the BNF wanted restoration of the status of the Baloch state as it existed on Aug 11, 1947, and undoing of what he called “forcible annexation”. Therefore, he said, the package had no importance for the Baloch people.

JWP-T chief Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti said the package was part of a conspiracy to divide the country and had been prepared at the behest of the killers of Benazir Bhutto and Nawab Akbar Bugti.

In order to save Pakistan, he said, it was necessary that the provinces were given maximum autonomy, Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) stopped interfering in politics and the Frontier Corps was withdrawn from Dera Bugti and Kohlu so that the owners of the land might return to their homes.

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