Establishment destabilising Balochistan govt: Lashkari Raisani

Claims ground is being cleared for favourites in the future government.

ISLAMABAD:

Baloch leader Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani has said the establishment is actively destabilising Balochistan’s provincial government.

Talking to The Express Tribune on Saturday, he said political and constitutional turmoil in the province has been engineered by anti-democratic forces to create an administrative and political vacuum which their own ‘cronies’ can fill.

Lashkari, who resigned as PPP’s Balochistan chapter president and from his Senate seat in protest a few months ago, said the establishment had always played a negative role in Balochistan. In the past, he has also been very critical of the government and security agencies over the missing persons issue.

“The establishment plays a positive role in the affairs of every country in the world, but it is highly unfortunate that its role in our country has always been negative,” he maintained. Lashkari added that the character assassination of politicians was part of the dirty game it was playing in Balochistan.

Referring to Balochistan Assembly speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootani’s purported refusal to convene an assembly session, he said the move was nothing more than a ploy to create more political and constitutional chaos in the province. He claimed the Supreme Court’s recent judgments on the province’s law and order situation and Asghar Khan’s petition also added to the prevailing pandemonium.

“I fail to understand the justification for further aggravating the current situation when general elections are about to take place,” he said, adding “it appears as if the ground is being prepared for those who will be toeing the establishment’s line in the future government.” Without naming Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfikar Ali Magsi, Lashkari claimed the former was behind all plots against his brother Nawab Aslam Raisani. Lashkari also blamed provincial assembly speaker Bhootani and PPP Balochistan president Sadiq Umrani for collaborating with the governor.

When asked who he thought was behind conspiracies in Balochistan, he replied, “You should ask the governor.”

“These people have always been in power and know how to appease the establishment,” he said referring to the governor and provincial assembly speaker.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2012.