Will not allow ‘dummy leadership’ to take over: Mengal

BNP-M chief says the Centre thinks of us as beggars when it comes to allocating the budget

QUETTA: In a veiled jibe at the newly-formed Balochistan Awami Party, Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has said that efforts are under way to install a “dummy leadership” in the province in the upcoming general elections, but “we will block all such attempts to exploit the rights of the people of Balochistan”.

“Despite a ban on political gathering in the province, today we have commenced our political campaign,” said Mengal, who is also the former chief minister of Balochistan, while addressing a membership campaign on Saturday. Former minister Haji Ismail Gujjar and dozens of his supporters joined the BNP-M during the campaign.



Slamming the federal government for exploiting the rights of the people of Balochistan, the BNP-M chief said, “Our resources are being looted for the last seven decades but yet the Centre, the religious parties and the so-called nationalists have done nothing to revamp the plight of the people of Balochistan.”

Sardar Mengal said, “Law and order situation in the province is getting worse with each passing day as target-killing incidents and bomb blasts are on the rise against innocent people.”
He said that only because of the upcoming elections the so-called political leaders “are coming and hugging the orphanage (Balochistan)”.



Expressing reservations over the federal budget 2018-19 presented by newly-appointed Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail in the National Assembly on Friday, Mengal said, “Of Rs5,247 billion annual budget, Balochistan will receive only Rs280 billion in charity. They (Centre) think of us as beggars and pay us the amount in charity … we are not asking for charity but for our due rights.”

Mengal said that his party was a democratic national political force that believed only in struggling for the rights of the people of Balochistan, adding that immense hurdles were created to halt their political career in the province but with the strive and support of party workers, “BNP is gaining momentum with each passing day”.

He said that BNP-M was going to contest the next general elections with a vision to restore peace in every inch of Balochistan.

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“The heart of Balochistan, Quetta, is depicting a picture as one of the worst dilapidated cities in the world,” he said, adding that in the name of development the so-called planted regime had done nothing for the deprived people.

Taking over the podium, former senator Haji Lashkari Raisani said, “A ‘dummy leadership’ is being imposed on the people of Balochistan.”

The former senator said, “The faces the new party has, have been sitting in the assembly for the past many years but the hidden powers have decided to install a new dummy leadership in Balochistan.”

Raisani urged the people of Balochistan to oust the dummy political party in the upcoming general elections.