Former Balochistan chief minister Aslam Raisani. PHOTO: FILE
QUETTA: Former Balochistan chief minister Aslam Raisani and his brother Haji Lashkari Raisani have thanked the people of Quetta for supporting the opposition’s shutter-down strike against rising inflation and worsening law and order situation in the province, saying the citizens are with us.
“The provincial government is completely oblivious to the matters of the people of the province and didn’t show seriousness towards resolving the issues which forced us to call a shutter-down strike,” they said in a joint statement issued on Sunday.
“Despite a deficit of Rs100 billion, funds worth Rs62 billion to Rs63 billion have been lapsed due to the incompetency of the current government,” they added.
Taking a jab, they said the current federal and provincial governments were not serious in providing relief to the poor masses.
They expressed concerns over the “opposition members being deliberately neglected in the preparation of the provincial budget”, saying the selected government lacked the ability to develop the province as they had jammed the development wheel of the impoverished province.
They said, “Today, the whole province agrees with the opposition parties’ stance on the current government’s negligence in addressing the woes of the people.”
On Friday, the business fraternity observed a complete strike in Balochistan’s provincial capital to protest against the rising inflation and worsening law and order situation in the province.
The strike was announced on Wednesday by opposition parties and traders association during a press conference at the Balochistan Assembly.
On Friday, business activities in Quetta came to a halt while traffic on roads also thinned out considerably. The opposition parties also staged a protest demonstration outside the Quetta Press Club and chanted slogans against the provincial government.
Balochistan Public Accounts Committee Chairman Akhtar Hussain Langove, chief of Sarawan Raisani, Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Nasrullah Zeeray, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl leaders and Anjuman-e-Tajiran leaders also addressed the protesters.
The city wore a deserted look and vehicular traffic remained thin. However, people also stayed indoors because of Ramazan.
Heavy contingents of security forces, including police, Frontier Corps and Anti-Terrorism Force, were deployed at all important government buildings and educational institutes. Police and FC personnel patrolled in the city and on its outskirts. No untoward incident was reported from any part of the city.
The opposition leaders said the government had also failed to maintain law and order in the province, which was worsening with the passage of time.
They said despite the passage of 10 months the government had not released funds to the opposition legislators for development in their constituencies. They claimed that 80 per cent funds of the current Public Sector Development Programme would lapse.
The opposition parties demanded that Levies Force be not merged with police in Quetta, Lasbela and Gwadar. They announced that they would continue their protest until the issues were not resolved. In its second phase the protest would be launched in other towns and cities of Balochistan, they added.
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