Reminder to federal govt: Call for quickly initiating Bugti murder probe

A letter will be sent to the centre by the provincial government.

QUETTA:

The Balochistan government has decided to write a letter to the federal government for the formation of a judicial commission for initiating an investigation into the murder of veteran Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The letter will remind the federal government that it was decided under the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package that a judicial inquiry will be launched to probe Nawab Bugti’s murder, and that no such step had been taken yet.

This decision was taken at a meeting held on Saturday under Chief Secretary Balochistan Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri. Home Secretary Zafar Baloch, Advocate-General of Balochistan Amanullah Kanrani and other officials also attended the meeting. The province’s law and order situation was also reviewed. It was decided in the meeting that the letter will be written by the provincial department of home and tribal affairs within two days.

The letter will also state that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani, in his speech during the joint session of the parliament in 2009, had announced that the government will soon constitute a judicial commission to probe Bugti’s murder. The meeting observed that the commission had not been formed despite one and a half years had lapsed.

Sources said the decision was taken after Nawabzada Jamil Bugti, Nawab Bugti’s eldest son, had lodged a petition in the Balochistan High Court, alleging that the law enforcers illustrated a lack of interest with respect to the investigations.

Nawab Bugti was killed along with his comrades in a military operation in 2005. The Balochistan High Court had also expressed its resentment over the lack of progress into the murder investigation.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2011.