Minister walks out from assembly session

Provincial minister walks out after he his barred from speaking on the issue of enforced disappearances.

QUETTA: Provincial Minister for Agriculture Asad Baloch staged a walkout during the Balochistan Assembly session on Monday after Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootani barred him from speaking on the issue of enforced disappearances in the province.

Asad Baloch had tried to speak on a point of order about the missing persons.

However, the speaker said that the issue was supposed to be discussed in a cabinet meeting.

The speaker ordered that Baloch's remarks be expunged from the record of the house proceedings and directed media persons to refrain from reporting the comments.

Talking to the media after the walkout, Asad Baloch, who is also the secretary-general of the Balochistan National Party-Awami, said: “The number of missing persons is increasing. I wonder why no one is taking notice of this humanitarian issue.”

Stressing the need for maintaining security, he said that the command and control of the Frontier Corps (FC) should be handed over to the provincial government.

He also said that instead of using force, issues of political and economic nature should be resolved in a democratic manner. Earlier, the issue of the prolonged power outages in remote rural areas was also raised in the Balochistan Assembly as legislators criticised officials of Wapda and Qesco for power failures.

“When Qesco chief and other officials were contacted, they did not even provide any valid reason (for the outage),” Minister for Irrigation Sardar Aslam Bizenjo said.

Speaking on a point of order, he said that persisting power outages have resulted in shortage of clean drinking and irrigation water.

The speaker said he will talk with the managing director of Pepco and apprise him about the people’s concern.

Also on Monday, Revenue Minister Zamurk Khan Achakzai urged the federal government to release funds for development projects in Balochistan.

Speaking on a point of order, he said: “The province had not received its full share of the 7th NFC Award. Only Rs10 billion have so far been released. All funds have been frozen and cuts have been imposed. Even salaries of newly-appointed 5,000 employees under the Aghaz-e-Huqooq Balochistan package remain unpaid,” Khan added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2010.