Separate Province Right Of Pakhtuns Of Balochistan: Tahir Bezinjo

he said, adding that the Baloch would not become a hurdle in formation of a separate Pakhtun province.

* National Party leader says party believes in Baloch-Pakhtun unity

QUETTA: National Party (NP) Central General Secretary Tahir Bezinjo said that historically Pakhtun areas in Balochistan had never been part of Balochistan and the Pakhtuns of those areas were free to decide for a separate province or becoming a part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a press conference at the Quetta Press Club on Wednesday, he said that efforts to create differences among the people of the province were unwise. The NP leader said that accusations against the Baloch of stirring a Pakhtun usurping in the province were completely baseless as the Baloch were themselves oppressed people struggling for their rights.

He said that natural gas was discovered in 1952, and Quetta was provided the facility after 32 years of the discovery, while most of Balochistan was still deprived of the facility. “Army has been used several times in Balochistan and decomposed bodies of Baloch youth are being recovered,” he said.

Bezinjo said that NP believed in Baloch-Pakhtun unity and would play its role in strengthening brotherhood between both nationalities.

To a query about a Pakhtun province in Balochistan, he said he respected Pakhtun leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, adding that the slogans for formation of a new province in Balochistan were aimed at political point-scoring keeping in view the upcoming general elections.

“As far as the issue of creation of a Pakhtun province is concerned, it should be taken up with Islamabad,” he said, adding that the Baloch would not become a hurdle in formation of a separate Pakhtun province.

Referring to mega projects in the Baloch-dominated areas, the NP leader said the so-called mega projects had not benefited the Baloch as they had no control over those projects.