QUETTA The interior ministry has issued an order handing over the Kohlu military cantonment in Balochistan to the Frontier Corps.

Official sources said on Tuesday night that the decision to give control of the newly established cantonment to the FC had been taken under the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package announced in a joint session of two houses of parliament last month.

It may be mentioned that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has also announced that no new cantonment will be set up in Balochistan.

Former president Pervez Musharraf had started work on three new military cantonments, in Sui, Kohlu and Gwadar.

All nationalist parties in the province have opposed the setting up of new cantonments in Balochistan and demanded that work on setting up the cantonments in the province be stopped.

The Balochistan assembly had adopted a resolution demanding that the plan to set up new cantonments should be scrapped. But the previous government refused to accept the demand.

Chief Minister Nawab Raisani and his coalition partners have also called for abandoning the plan.

After holding meetings with leaders of the provincial government, the president and the prime minister had announced that no new military cantonment would be set up in the province and the new cantonments would be handed over to the FC after withdrawal of army personnel.