Shahzain Bugti’s arrest: Rash action may result in political fallout, says Nawaz
PML-N chief urges govt to avoid taking rash actions which could aggravate the situation in Balochistan.
ISLAMABAD:
Former prime minister and chief of PML-N Nawaz Sharif on Friday urged the government to avoid taking rash actions which could aggravate the situation in Balochistan and called for handling the case with great care to avoid political fallout.
Shahzain Bugti, the grandson and political successor of slain Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, was arrested by the personnel of Frontier Constabulary (FC) a couple of days ago outside Quetta.
He was charged with attempting to smuggle into Quetta a huge cache of weapons, including anti-aircraft guns. Shahzain has denied these allegations.
Sharif called Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani to ask them to handle the case with great care because “it can plunge an already volatile province into further chaos”.
“Every step has to be taken with extreme care keeping in mind the sensitivity of the matter,” Sharif said, reminding the government of what followed the 2006 assassination of Shahzain’s grandfather.
The nationalist insurgency spread all over Balochistan from Bugti’s hometown of Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts after Nawab Akbar Bugti, a former governor and chief minister of the province, was killed.
Sharif said that he feared that if Shahzain’s case was not handled intelligently, a situation similar to the one in 2006 might recur.
“Such steps must be avoided which can aggravate the situation,” a spokesperson for Sharif quoted him as telling Gilani and Raisani in a statement.
There was no official word from the prime minister’s office on the issue.
Sharif said that he hoped that Gilani would personally try to gather facts and oversee the case if he wanted to save the province from suffering another wave of violence.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2010.
Former prime minister and chief of PML-N Nawaz Sharif on Friday urged the government to avoid taking rash actions which could aggravate the situation in Balochistan and called for handling the case with great care to avoid political fallout.
Shahzain Bugti, the grandson and political successor of slain Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, was arrested by the personnel of Frontier Constabulary (FC) a couple of days ago outside Quetta.
He was charged with attempting to smuggle into Quetta a huge cache of weapons, including anti-aircraft guns. Shahzain has denied these allegations.
Sharif called Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani to ask them to handle the case with great care because “it can plunge an already volatile province into further chaos”.
“Every step has to be taken with extreme care keeping in mind the sensitivity of the matter,” Sharif said, reminding the government of what followed the 2006 assassination of Shahzain’s grandfather.
The nationalist insurgency spread all over Balochistan from Bugti’s hometown of Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts after Nawab Akbar Bugti, a former governor and chief minister of the province, was killed.
Sharif said that he feared that if Shahzain’s case was not handled intelligently, a situation similar to the one in 2006 might recur.
“Such steps must be avoided which can aggravate the situation,” a spokesperson for Sharif quoted him as telling Gilani and Raisani in a statement.
There was no official word from the prime minister’s office on the issue.
Sharif said that he hoped that Gilani would personally try to gather facts and oversee the case if he wanted to save the province from suffering another wave of violence.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2010.