JUI-Nazriyati Announces Full Support for Pashtun National Jirga
Quetta: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Nazriyati Pakistan has announced its full participation in and support for the Pashtun National Jirga, describing the initiative as essential in view of the ongoing unrest, exploitation, deprivation of basic rights and constitutional crisis in Balochistan.
Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party provincial president Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan, on the instructions of party chairman and opposition leader in the National Assembly Mahmood Khan Achakzai, met JUI-Nazriyati Pakistan’s central acting chief Maulana Abdul Qadir Loni and invited him to attend the Pashtun National Jirga.
Maulana Abdul Qadir Loni announced that his party would participate in the jirga and extend its full support. He said religious and political leadership must unite to help Balochistan overcome the crises facing the province.
He said JUI-Nazriyati believes in supporting every oppressed person and struggling against every form of injustice. According to him, the party’s manifesto includes the struggle for the rights and justice of all communities without discrimination.
Loni said it was the shared responsibility of political and religious leadership to work for peace, rights and protection of all communities and to address their collective problems.
He criticized what he described as policies of coercion and injustice, saying that remaining silent over Balochistan’s serious political, economic and security crises and public grievances was unacceptable.
He alleged that local communities were being deprived of their due share in revenues and royalties generated from the province’s natural resources, including Sui gas, Saindak, Reko Diq, coal and chromite.
Loni said that despite the 18th Amendment and constitutional provisions guaranteeing provincial autonomy and rights over natural resources, the people of Balochistan continued to face deprivation of their basic rights.
He also expressed concern over the security situation on national highways, saying the lives and property of ordinary citizens and traders were not secure, while insecurity was adversely affecting transportation, trade and freedom of movement.
He said the closure of border trade, disputes over control of resources and problems related to checkpoints had further increased public difficulties.
Loni further said the ongoing democratic and constitutional crisis had weakened the standing of Parliament, stressing that parliamentary supremacy must be ensured and state institutions should operate within their constitutional limits.
He said Balochistan was suffering due to the use of force and stressed that all political and religious leadership must sit together and formulate a consensus strategy to overcome the complex crisis facing the province.
