More autonomy to Balochistan demanded

01 Sep, 2006

The civil society organisations have demanded of the government to demilitarise the violence-prone province along with restoring civil administration and giving the province more autonomy.
Criticising the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, they termed the incident as greatest loss, which would help in strengthening "Waderaism" and change the social structure of the province.
They also feared disintegration of the province if federal government did not give autonomy along with more shares in the National Finance Commission (NFC) to the province. Addressing the press conference here on Thursday at local press club, members of prominent civil society organisations also urged the military to stop intervening in the political affairs.
Responding to questions, they were short of answers on maintaining double standards ie on one hand supporting 'enlightened moderation' of General Pervez Musharraf and on the other criticising military action for maintaining law and order in Kohlu.
To another query, the organisations said that they were simultaneously raising the issues of human rights violations at all fora.
Earlier, Shamil Shams of SDPI said that President Musharraf was toeing the same line which US President had to invade countries in the name of anti-terrorism by launching massive military operations in Balochistan. He also warned that peace process between Pakistan and India could not move forward without strong democratic institutions in Pakistan.
Mustafa Baloch of Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), who hails from Balochistan, rejected the government's claims of spending billion of rupees in the province by claiming that not a single penny was spent for the development of human resource rather it was used for infrastructure and developmental projects. Dr Saba Khattak of SDPI also demanded for political solution rather of military solution of the issues like Waziristan and Karachi.
Dr Rozina Sehgal of ActionAid said that military action in Balochistan is the continuation of "colonisation", it should be stopped and resources should be justly and fairly distributed.

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