Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s role in the peace process in Balochistan is very controversial and he is sabotaging it, former PPP Balochistan president Lashkari Raisani said on Monday.
Talking to reporters, he said, “If the talk of Zulfiqar Mirza is not taken seriously, then anti-Pakistan elements will be encouraged. We are in contact with the resistant elements, who are ready to join the mainstream, but whenever Rehman Malik comes to Balochistan, he sabotages the negotiation process by using a harsh tone. I demand the top leadership of the party take action against him forthwith otherwise the circumstances will go beyond control.” He said Malik’s double standards for Balochistan and Karachi “make his personality suspicious”. He said the PPP and other political parties’ silence on Mirza’s testimony was very meaningful. “It is time the rulers as well as politicians of the country choose between politics and the state. Promises made to the Baloch people were not honoured as the steps taken by the government were only restricted to media statements. The patriotic component of the province will also follow the rebels to the mountains if the policies of the past continue.”Raisani hoped that the government would not let patriots join the troublemakers. “The problem of Balochistan is political, which can be only resolved on the discussion table in a political manner,” he said. To a question, he said Mirza had revealed the conspiracy to break down the country. “It is imperative to initiate legal proceedings under Article 6 of the constitution against those wrongdoers which Mirza indicated.”
