Nawaz Sharif rolls out conditions to attend All-Parties Conference

In what appeared to be a quite hard-line stance by the PML-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif has rolled out two non-negotiable conditions for ensuring his party’s participation in an All Parties Conference (APC) on Balochistan.

He has made his party’s participation in the proposed APC conditional to the arrest of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s killers and recovery of missing persons.

Although the government’s efforts to arrange a national huddle on Balochistan are fast-failing, it will build some pressure on the secret forces to change their thoughts over the matter.

The PML-N has been accusing former dictatorial ruler General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf of having murdered the Baloch nationalist leader.

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani had announced lately that the APC would be held to resolve the issue of Balochistan. However, Baloch nationalist groups have already refused to attend the conference whose date is yet to be decided.

In order to fix the date and bring all parties into the APC, the premier constituted a 13-member committee to contact the country’s political leadership. Given that the idea was effectively theirs to hold an all party sitting, the PML-N is ready to participate but has linked with conditions.

A press note issued by the party observed, “The APC would be useless, unless Bugti’s killers are arrested and the Baloch missing persons are recovered. Our party will participate in the conference if the government solves these two issues”.

The PML-N, on the one hand, set precedence for an evolving party manifesto before the upcoming general elections, moving a resolution in the National Assembly to condemn the US congressional resolution. On the other, Nawaz Sharif himself joined the camp of missing persons, demanding their safe recovery.

According to media reports some circles of the PML-N believe that the APC will be only waste of time and ineffective since both the parties, the separatists and the security establishment, will be absent from the sitting.

There were of the opinion that the only feasible solution of the Balochistan issue will be to engage with the nationalists who are on the mountains and abroad.

Conversely, many Baloch leaders including Shahzain Bugti, Hasil Bizenjo, Akhtar Mengal and others have already declined to attend participate in the APC, claiming that time for such conferences had passed.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 23 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.