Pakistan’s Supreme Court’s (SC) order, declaring the Balochistan Government inept for curtailing the law and order crisis in Balochistan, has sparked an anti-Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) response from various political parties.
The response predominantly revolves around the notion that PPP has lost a moral mandate to rule after the verdict, and should voluntarily step down. A Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) Provincial Minister, namely Maulana Abdul Wasay, avoided making a comment on the verdict and reiterated the government’s efforts for improving the crisis situation in the province.
Moreover, he opined that the SC had not suggested any action ‘against’ the Bolochistan government and had in fact elucidated options for the government to act upon. Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Dr Abdul Malik Baloch however asserted that his party had long been voicing concerns over the corrupt nature and ineptness of the sitting government in the province. He opined that now that the SC had endorsed the view, the provincial government ought to step down voluntarily, as it was devoid of any justification to continue. BNP Central Information Secretary Agha Hassan Baloch while elaborating upon the party president’s views stated that the order was timely and correct. He said that over 54 BNP activists had been killed, including Secretary General Habib Jalib. Agha further stated that despite the SC’s instructions to the federal government, BNP had little hope of any positive action, since in his view, ‘the provincial and federal were two sides of the same coin.’ In this regard, JUI-F minister Wasay conceded that the provincial government as well as the people of Balochistan had serious grievances against the federal government. Pakhtoonkhawa Milli Awaami Party President Usman Kakar’s harangue was similar to BNP – narrating that his party had been voicing concern over the interference of state agencies in the province’s politics since three decades, which in turn accused his party of trying to defame them. He lamented the targeted killing of innocent people, stating that bullet-riddled bodies were found every now and then all over the province, and asserted that incidents of abduction were at there peak. He blamed the sitting government for its inability to resolve the crisis.
