News
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Second conference of political parties on Balochistan on Sept 8
* SCBA forms five-member committee to invite political leadership to the moot
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), in the backdrop of the Balochistan Declaration, has fixed September 8 to arrange another conference of local Baloch political leaders in Quetta.
SCBA General Secretary Aslam Zar, while talking to Daily Times, said that the bar has fixed September 8 in which all the provincial leaders would be invited for the arrangement of second conference on Balochistan issue.
He also said that a five-member committee, headed by Jahanzaib Khan Jadoon, had already been formed to invite local leadership of the province regarding the matter. Zar said, “Lawyers' leaders from each district and tehsil bar of the province will participate in the conference.” The bar has appreciated the role of chief justice for maintaining law and order situation in the province and the Baloch leadership has also realised his efforts in this regard, he added. He also said that the civilian and military leadership had given attention towards provincial problems as a special cabinet committee recently visited Balochistan. The first conference was fruitful, and the bar was also considering inviting the national leadership again in Quetta conference, he added. The SCBA general secretary said that the association had already constituted a free legal aid committee to contest the Baloch missing persons' cases in courts.
The SC would resume Balochistan target killing case in the first week of September at Quatta registry. SCBA President Yasin Azad on July 25 bemoaned before the Supreme Court that the situation in Balochistan had reached a point of no return, therefore, needed an urgent political solution. “Believe me Balochistan is slipping away,” he said to a three-judge bench hearing a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violations in the province. SCBA president criticised the role of intelligence agencies in the province and said fingers were being pointed at the Frontier Corps. “Even police heads say they cannot control the situation in Balochistan because of undue interference by intelligence agencies,” he added.
However, the FC, in a written statement on July 24, told the SC that it had conducted “internal inquiries” and found that the group of missing people was not held in the custody of FC. It said that insurgents dressed in FC uniforms committed high-profile acts of terrorism and heinous crimes, which brought a bad name to the federal organisation. FC’s counsel Raja Irshad had told the court that eight enquiries were being conducted by different lieutenant colonels and that various aspects of the investigation required further probe.
A 15-point Balochistan Declaration was adopted at the first conference in which the leadership of all political parties agreed that the solution of the Balochistan crisis was dialogue. The declaration had also said that those responsible for the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti should be arrested and brought to justice. Parallel to political negotiations, all military and paramilitary operations should be stopped and the army and FC should be called back, it added. "All political prisoners and missing persons in custody of different state agencies be released forthwith and an independent inquiry commission be appointed and appropriate compensation be paid to the heirs of all those who have lost their lives or have become disabled on account of the conflict," the declaration read.Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk