Balochistan Senior Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran has alleged that through recent de-limitation of the national and provincial assemblies the election commission of Pakistan has attempted to put different communities and tribes against each other in Balochistan.
He said this while speaking in the Balochistan Assembly session here on Friday, which started over two hours late of its scheduled time.
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Deputy Speaker Sardar Babar Khan Musakhail presided over the session. The PTI’s MPA Mobin Ahmed Khilji while talking the floor on a point of order took the issue of the new de-limitation of the Balochistan assembly constituencies and said that the election.
The ECP instead of making de-limitation on merit and keeping in view ground realities has announced new constituencies on the desire of a nationalist party. He said that some constituencies were made on small numbers of voters while some others on the bases of big population.
Mr. Khilji said that with making constituencies on the bases of new de-limitation many communities were deprived of representation in the Balochistan assembly. He suggested challenging the new constituencies in the court law to avoid any controversy on the issue.
Malik Naeem Bazai of the ANP also expressed his dissatisfaction over the new constituencies but at the same time said that he was ready to contest election on the new limitation. “I’m not worried about my election; I am ready to face opposition parties, even the JUI-F and PkMAP joint candidates, as I served my people and did work for their welfare.”
The opposition leader Malik Sikander Khan said that there is time in elections and during this period the efforts should be made to remove the mistakes committed by the Election Commission of Pakistan in making new constituencies.
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Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran, who is a senior minister while speaking in the absence of the Chief Minister, also opposed the new constituencies announced by the election commission and said that it was an attempt to pit different communities and tribes in the province which still consider a tribal society. “With the new constituencies the tribal disputes would increase, which the government was making efforts to resolve,” he said, adding that this government has come into power to restore peace and brotherhood among the tribes through resolving tribal disputes.
He said that the government believes in rule of law and would not allow anyone making “State within the state.” He said that the election commission has given time for filing objections on the new constituencies till July 30 and diffidently the parties would challenge the new constituencies’ in the court of law.
Deputy Speaker Sardar Babar Khan Musakhail said that the election commission is an independent institution and the house cannot pass any order and summon the election commission in the house. However, he said the people who are going to affect due to demarcation of new constituencies could held their joint meeting and informed the member of election commission from Balochistan Mr. Shah Muhammad Jatoi about the reservations and objections about the new constituencies.
