ISLAMABAD   -  The grand opposition alliance under the banner of Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP) on Wednesday decided to summon an All Parties Conference (APC) to address the issue of deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan.

A meeting of the alliance held here under the chair of its president and Pashtoon nationalist leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai formed a ‘coordination committee’ to synchronize efforts to call the moot. The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza will head the committee.

“Our alliance has expressed serious concerns about the situation in Balochistan. We will meet with the National Assembly Speaker and urge him to take steps in this connection,” said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former speaker NA Asad Qaiser while talking to reporters after the meeting. He added that an APC would be called over the issue after consulting with the ruling parties.

Balochistan experienced 28 terrorist incidents during August 2024, which resulted in 57 deaths and injuries to another 84 people, according to a security report issued by Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS). Most of these terrorism-related casualties in the province resulted from the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)-orchestrated attacks on August 26 in over seven districts of the province targeting security forces, non-Baloch Pakistanis (mainly Punjabis) and national infrastructure, the report said.

PTI leader Qaiser urged the need to address the grievances of estranged Baloch nationalists. He noted that the government has shown little interest despite they raised the issue in the assembly. He also underlined that the resignation of Akhtar Mengal, chief of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), from the National Assembly was regrettable. “There is no use of the assembly if political people will show their disappointment in this way,” he said while referring to the resignation.

A day earlier, Mengal had resigned from the NA, accusing that Balochistan has consistently been marginalized and ignored by the lower house of the parliament.

Qaiser also announced that his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is planning nationwide protests and rallies and a day would be fixed for countrywide demonstrations.

Talking on the occasion, Achakzai said it was welcoming that all political parties of Pakistan believed in the supremacy of law and constitution. “We have a view that an APC should be called (on the Balochistan issue) after taking on board all political parties,” he said, adding that the committee will start work from today. He warned that they would hold protests countrywide if the government did not accept their demands, noting they will not resort to protest if the ruling alliance agreed to summon the APC.

He said Qaiser had been assigned the task to meet with Speaker NA over this issue. “Our committee will meet with different political players countrywide in connection with summoning the conference,” he said.

PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan in his talk said his party would hold its planned rally in Islamabad on September 8 “at any cost.” Giving the details of other protest rallies, he said the opposition would hold a rally and in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 12 and in Lahore on September 22

Separately, a delegation of PTI also met with Mengal to convince him to withdraw his resignation as a member of the National Assembly.