SUI – Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani announced on Monday that the Frontier Corps (FC) would replace the army in Sui, Dera Bugti district, and that a plan to build more military cantonments in Balochistan had been cancelled. General Kayani made the announcements while speaking at the inauguration of the newly-built Military College in Sui, a ceremony attended by local notables and students. Kayani said that the government was responsible for maintaining law and order in the province and the FC was under the command of the government.
He said that the people of Balochistan should look upon FC as their own force instead of outsiders. He said not a single army unit was conducting any operations in the province and the troops currently stationed in Sui would be pulled out soon, after their responsibilities there were taken over by the FC. He said that the army had planned to build another four cantonments in the province but it had abandoned the plan since people do not want more cantonments.
He said that the army was working for the welfare of the people and development of the province and wanted to build confidence between the armed forces and the people, as the country’s defence could not be strengthened without confidence and support from the people. He said that different people were entitled to different opinions, and differences could even emerge between two brothers, but their relationship should not break on account of these disagreements. He said that differences could be removed by dialogue, and people as well as provinces could remove their differences by dialogue.
Earlier, the army chief also spoke at a ceremony of Gwadar Institute of Technology. He said that young people from Balochistan would be recruited in Pakistan Army according to their province’s share in the total population of the country.
