BNP-M slams return of funds to Centre

Raisani says provincial govt lacks ability to formulate decisive policy


​ Our Correspondent December 14, 2019
BNP-M leader Nawabzada Lashkar Raisani addresses a ceremony organised by Baloch Students Action Committee. PHOTO: INP

QUETTA: Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) central leader Nawabzada Mir Lashkari Raisani has said the incumbent “unconstitutional and powerless” provincial government lacked the capability to formulate a decisive policy for the people of the province.

“The government’s policies are increasing poverty, unemployment and backwardness," he added.

“Instead of spending Rs37 billion on the welfare of the people, the provincial government has returned the money to the federal government and plans to sell the resources and minerals of Balochistan.”

The BNP-M leader maintained that the government had failed to provide people with basic facilities including education and healthcare.

“Under a conspiracy, the real political leadership has been kept out and the parliament rendered ineffective,” he claimed. “Those who are now in power are not answerable to the people of the province but to the elite class.”

Raisani said Balochistan's resources were being used by others instead of being handed over to its people. "Balochistan is being run like a colony for the last 70 years," he added.

According to a report, Balochistan only spent Rs3.7 billion or 4.3% of its Rs86 billion funds on development schemes and returned Rs37 billion to the federal government.

Earlier this month, Raisani warned that his party would withdraw its support for the PTI if the latter did not implement its six-point agenda.

“The federal government is only interested in Balochistan’s natural resources and not bothered about ending its decades-long deprivation,” the former senator said at a ceremony at the Quetta Press Club.

“The BNP-M has extended its full support to the PTI because it had pledged to fulfill our demands. But we reserve the right to withdraw our support if it doesn’t keep its promise.”

The BNP-M leader said the federal government had neglected Balochistan despite its sprawling land mass and natural resources.

“There must be unity among politicians, journalists, writers and intellectuals to secure the province’s rights.”

The BNP-M has repeatedly expressed its disappointment over the government’s failure to make progress towards the implementation of its six-point agenda it reached with the PTI at the time of the formation of its government in August last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2019.

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