ISLAMABAD: The government will set an agenda for dialogue with nationalists groups in Balochistan, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference that the minister held in Islamabad after a meeting of the federal cabinet where several decisions were taken related to different aspects of the country, the minister said that Balochistan will soon be a “cradle of peace” in the country.
He further said that those involved in Lahore’s Johar Town blast — who the government earlier said have links with India — have been arrested by authorities.
“We have lauded our agencies for arresting the culprits within a short span of time,” he said.
The minister said that ever since Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav was found in Pakistan, intelligence agencies have also exposed a network of Indian-backed elements within the country.
Chaudhry lauded the Punjab police and the Counter-Terrorism Department for jointly “exposed such a big network of India”, adding that more details about the network, including accounts, the names of people involved and the banks in Delhi through which money was transferred to the network, would be shared soon.
“It was the second-biggest network after [the one operated by Indian spy] Kulbhushan Jadhav which has been exposed in Pakistan. We have also broken the Indian network in Balochistan with great success.”
Chaudhry said that people who were part of the network had been apprehended to a “large extent”.
“I am hopeful that there will be betterment in the peace situation in the country,” he added.
The minister made similar remarks earlier in the day when he said that the “Indian terrorist network” operating in Balochistan had been dismantled and that now the government will set an agenda for dialogue with Baloch nationalists.
He said that owing to the government’s timely measures and efforts, the situation of law and order in Pakistan will improve as compared to the past.
“It is the job of the government to create a national security policy, and the PTI is currently working on it,” he said. “Progress related to the policy is already visible.”
Fawad said that during the meeting of the cabinet, a discussion on the introduction of electronic voting was also held.
“Local companies will manufacture electronic voting machines by July 15,” he said.
Chaudhry, earlier in a tweet, said the federal government had planned to execute 131 development projects worth Rs731 billion in Balochistan while the provincial government’s development budget for this year was Rs180 billion.
بلوچستان میں ہندوستان کا دہشت گردی کا نیٹ ورک کافی حد تک توڑ دیا ہے اب قوم پرستوں کے ساتھ بات چیت کا ایجنڈا طے کیا جائیگا،بلوچستان میں وفاقی حکومت 731 ارب کے 131 منصوبے مکمل کرے گی، صوبائ حکومت کا ترقیاتی پروگرام صرف اس سال 180 ارب کا ہے، بلوچستان @ImranKhanPTI کے دل کے قریب ہے https://t.co/6Vzc6W9fvX
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) July 6, 2021
“Balochistan is close to Imran Khan’s heart,” he said.
The minister further announced that the security agencies have dismantled the Indian terrorist network in the province “to a great extent”.
“Now, we have to set an agenda for talks with Baloch nationalists.”
UMAR HAILS DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES:
Separately, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar hailed the development initiatives launched for Balochistan during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.
Speaking to the media in Gwadar, he said the prime minister was informed that schemes worth more than Rs1.2 trillion had been allocated for the province.
“WiFi has been introduced in Kech district and it is in the process of being introduced in other districts,” he said.
“Never before has development work been carried out in Balochistan at this scale,” the minister said, adding that this was being done in partnership with the Balochistan government.
PM VISITS COMMUNITY:
The statement came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a day-long trip to Balochistan on Monday, revealed his intention to reach out to the “separatist elements” and “estranged” youth for the sake of durable peace in the province.
On Monday while speaking to the Gwadar business community in his official visit, Prime Minister Imran Khan said if it was not for his sincere intentions for Balochistan he would instead be spending summers in London and shopping from Harrods since he did not win elections here.
Moving on with his Gwadar address, he said he was, in fact, thinking of resolving issues with Baloch insurgents by talking to them since there are possibilities of past injustices they were the victims of.
He said no rulers, federal or local, in the past have dealt with Baloch people fairly and thus deprivation of basic rights prompted despair and resistance amongst citizens there who may have been played into Indian and enemy hands.
“Unfortunately, the centre and the political leadership of Balochistan made mistakes in addressing the grievances of the people of Balochistan because if a true leader in the country would think of Pakistan, he must consider Balochistan as his priority,” he said, while addressing a gathering of local elders, students and business leaders in Gwadar.
“They [Balochs] had grievances in the old times and [it] may have been used by other countries […] India may have used them to spread chaos but the situation is not the same [now].”
During his visit to the province yesterday, the premier said that he was considering “talking to insurgents” in Balochistan, saying that the government would never have had to worry about insurgency in the province if attention had been paid to its development.
The premier said that he had always planned that when the PTI came to power, his government would pay attention to Balochistan.
“When the province progresses and there is peace, the people of Balochistan’s will understand that Pakistan is also theirs and say ‘we should also fight for it because it thinks of our basic needs and problems,'” the PM had said.
He said if development work had been carried out in the province, “we would never have had to worry about insurgents.”
“It may be that they had grievances in the old times and may have been used by other countries […] India may have used them to spread chaos but the situation [now] is not the same,” he added.
