News
Thursday, May 01, 2008
PPP to send delegation for peace talks with Baloch
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will send a delegation to Balochistan on Friday to conduct formal negotiations with nationalists and tribal heads in a bid to restore peace in the province. The PPP Reconciliation Committee for Balochistan met here under the chairmanship of Dr Babar Awan and discussed all options for dialogue, including an all-parties conference, APP quoted PPP sources as saying. Separately, senators from Balochistan asked the PPP to take all political forces, including nationalist leaders, into confidence for the resolution of problems being faced by the province, Senator Babar Awan said on Wednesday. Addressing the media following a meeting with Baloch senators, the PPP National Reconciliation Committee secretary said that most of the senators had raised the issue of provincial autonomy. He said that the senators had also demanded an increased share for their province in the National Finance Commission. Referring to the meeting’s participants, he said that most of the senators were optimistic that the PPP would resolve all their problems. “They proposed that Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Senator Wasim Sajjad and PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain should be consulted by the committee, as they have worked on the issues of Balochistan,” he said. Awan said that the senators had demanded that the government remove the perception that the Baloch were “third-degree citizens”, saying that this could be achieved only through development. zulfiqar ghuman/app
Courtesy Daily Times