ISLAMABAD - In a shocking development for ruling party (PTI), Balochistan National Party (Mengal) yesterday parted ways with the ruling coalition over its alleged failure to implement agreed formula.

BNP-Mengal chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal yesterday formally announced at the national assembly floor to end its alliance with the federal government as a coalition partner.

“We [BNP lawmakers] will stay in the parliament and will keep raising issues,” said Mengal taking part in the ongoing budget debate. BNP-Mengal, an important allied partner from Balochistan, has opted to leave its alliance with the Imran Khan-led government at a time when the PTI has been facing the corona crisis and economic challenges.

The PTI has currently 156 seats and support of allied partners including MQM-P with its seven seats, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) with five, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) with three, Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) and Awami Muslim League (AML) have one seat each besides four independent lawmakers.

Talking to The Nation, Mengal said that the PTI senior members had approached him for reconciliation. “I have told them [Ruling party members] that BNP (Mengal) had given two years time but there was no progress on our demands,” he said, mentioning that since the BNP [Mengal] demands were not taken seriously so they decided to part ways with the PTI.

Unsatisfied with the PTI for allegedly not fulfilling its promises, BNP (Mengal) had several times hinted to leave the ruling alliance with the federal government. BNP (Mengal) had time and again expressed its reservations for not implementing its six-point demand including recovery of missing persons.

The six points of the political party from Balochistan were related to recovery of missing persons, implementation of the National Action Plan, implementation of six per cent quota for Balochistan in the federal government, immediate repatriation of Afghan refugees and the construction of dams in the province to resolve the acute water crisis.

The BNP (Mengal) had entered into an agreement (MoU) with the ruling party (PTI) in August 2018 on condition of implementing its six-point as earlier as possible.

Akhtar Mengal, speaking in the national assembly, had reminded the PTI that it had supported the incumbent government during the elections of speaker national assembly Asad Qaiser, deputy speaker national assembly Qasim Khan Suri and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He added that the PTI had signed two agreements with the party at the time of government formation after the 2018 elections and later during the presidential elections, but not a single point of the accord was implemented.

Mengal had presented two separate lists of missing persons before the national assembly. One of the lists contained the names of 18 people who have been recovered so far while the other contained the names of nearly 500 people who had gone missing after signing the agreements with the PTI, he said.

It may be mentioned here that Sardar Akhtar Mengal had earlier threatened to quit the ruling alliance if four Baloch women picked up from Awaran district were not released. “If we resigned from the National Assembly against the assassination of Nawab Akbar Bugti then it is not difficult for us to quit the ruling alliance,” said Mengal at the floor of the national assembly a couple of months ago.