PML-N rolls out conditions for attending Balochistan APC

Party chief Nawaz Sharif says participation useless until arrest of Bugti’s killers and recovery of missing persons.

LAHORE: As government steps up efforts to bring on board as many leaders as it can for an all-parties conference on Balochistan, key opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has set two conditions for attendance.

According to a party statement issued on Wednesday, Nawaz has said that participation in the APC would be useless until assassinated Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti’s killers are arrested and Baloch missing persons are recovered.

“Our party will participate in the conference if the government solves these two issues,” Sharif said, before leaving for Saudi Arabia to perform the Umra.

But party officials said the PML-N’s conditions were almost a refusal to participate in the APC. Prominent Baloch leaders, including Shahzain and Brahamdagh Bugti, have already refused to participate in the APC.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday had constituted a committee that was tasked to contact the political leadership of the country, inside and outside the parliament and convince them to agree upon a mutually convenient date for holding the APC.