QUETTA - Head of federal cabinet’s special committee on Balochistan, Syed Naveed Qamar has said that the issue of Balochistan cannot be resolved by only two committee meetings and a single visit to the province.
The special committee members arrived Saturday in the provincial capital Quetta to elicit views of various stakeholders and senior officials to review Balochistan issue.
It held talks with various stakeholders, but the nationalist parties’ representatives did not meet the committee – some of them said it was futile to meet any such toothless committee while others have announced not to talk to the government at all.
Briefing the journalists after meeting with various stakeholders who did come to meet them at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, the federal defence minister said they had complete support of the army and the secrete agencies for resolving the issue of Balochistan.
Naveed Qamar said that it was futile to indulge in matter of popular and unpopular representatives in Balochistan, adding that they were ready to meet anyone for the solution to the problem.
He said that people perched on mountains did not depict the real picture of the problem, regretting that they “do not want to talk to us”. But he expressed his resolve to keep on working until a solution is mapped out. “If they (disgruntled Baloch) don’t want to talk to us, should we quit our efforts,” he questioned.
The defence minister said that to find a solution to the problem, they had met various political leaders, social quarters and other stakeholders. “Committee has acquired better awareness about the issue,” he said, adding that it had also reviewed the implementation of all the promises made to the province.
He went on to say that the stakeholders had come up with their reservations and recommendations for the resolution of the issues of the province. “The recommendations of the special committee shall be put before cabinet during its meeting on Wednesday,” he added.
But Baloch nationalist parties boycotted the committee’s meetings at the CM House. The committee had invited leaders of National Party (NP) but they did not turn up to meet the members of committee.
Talking to The Nation NP President Dr Abdul Malik said that non-serious, meaningless meetings were nothing but wastage of time as the PPP government was not taking Balochistan’s issue seriously.
The second important Baloch nationalist party, Balochistan National Party (Mengal) was not invited. Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, acting president of BNP-Mengal, claimed that the committee was consulting the non-Baloch in order to confuse the situation and hoodwink the people.
The BNP-Mengal had already announced that it would not talk with any such powerless committee. BNP was demanding international guarantor for talks while Baloch Republican Party and Baloch National Front which is an alliance of different Baloch nationalist parties and organisation have already rejected any dialogue with the government.