Balochistan National Party Announces Boycott of August 12 Briefing, Says Government and Security Forces Have Become Parties to Ziarat Incident

QUETTA: The Balochistan National Party (BNP) has announced that it will not attend the briefing scheduled for August 12 at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat regarding the Ziarat sit-in, saying the government and security forces themselves have become parties to the matter.

In a central statement, the BNP said the briefing arranged for the Ziarat protest committee could not be considered impartial because the location and the organizers were directly involved in the issue. The party said it would have attended if the briefing had been held at a public venue in the presence of the public and media, allowing the facts to be presented openly.

The BNP said it believed the prevailing and deteriorating situation in Balochistan was the result of what it described as flawed policies of the current “Form 47” rulers and the establishment.

According to the statement, the people of Balochistan had faced alleged injustice, mistreatment, operations, enforced disappearances of Baloch youth and human rights violations over the past three years. The party said these policies had pushed the province’s population into severe difficulties.

The BNP alleged that the current authorities had relied on force and deliberately ignored the ground realities, further worsening the situation in the province. It also accused the government of violating the sanctity of homes and the privacy and dignity of women and children.

The party claimed that previous military operations in Balochistan had not involved what it described as violations of the sanctity of homes and women’s dignity, and said traditional Baloch values had historically been taken into consideration during such actions.

The statement further said that while the situation in Baloch areas had remained tense for the past two months, conditions in Pashtun areas had also deteriorated, with violence and killings increasing.

The BNP accused the government of backtracking on several provisions of an agreement reached with an All Parties Committee and said the authorities were continuing to hurt the collective sentiments of the people of Balochistan.

The party alleged that the province was facing serious human rights concerns while the authorities continued to project an image that everything was normal. It warned that statements and policies it described as provocative had pushed young people toward a “point of no return.”

The BNP maintained that political parties should be engaged in resolving the crisis. It reiterated that had the August 12 meeting and briefing been organized at a public venue in front of citizens and the media, the facts could have been openly presented and the party would have participated.