QUETTA, Aug 15: The Balochistan assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday asking President Pervez Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence from his electoral college or quit.

The resolution called upon parliament to impeach the president if he was hesitant to resign.

Talking to newsmen after the adoption of the resolution, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani said the president should go home quietly, otherwise impeachment proceedings would open a Pandora’s box that would tarnish the country’s image. He said the process would open many issues related to nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and anti-terror policies. He expressed the hope that the president would realise the gravity of the situation.

He said he would go to Islamabad to persuade members of parliament from Balochistan to vote for impeachment, regardless of their party affiliation.

He said he would ask the members of the committee drafting the charge-sheet against the president to include the issue of missing persons of Balochistan.

Replying to a question, the chief minister said he was almost certain that Gen (retd) Musharraf would resign before the tabling of the impeachment resolution.

All the 57 members attending the assembly session stood up in support of the joint resolution calling upon the president to seek a vote of confidence, step down or face impeachment.

Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, Sardar Masood Luni, Mir Tariq Masuri, Babu Amin and Nasreen Khetran of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Mir Asghar Rind of the Balochistan National Party-A did not attend the session.

Rubina Irfan of the PML-Q tabled the resolution which said the president had twice violated the Constitution, committed mismanagement, fuelled mistrust among the provinces and caused deprivation that had weakened the federation.

It said the policies pursued by the president over the past eight years had pushed the country to the brink of political and economic disaster and caused a severe electricity crisis.

By exercising his powers in an unconstitutional and undemocratic manner, the president launched military operations in Balochistan in which hundreds of people, including elderly leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti were killed and hundreds of Baloch, Pukhtuns and other Balochistanis were kept in illegal secret cells, it said.

It said that innocent people had been killed throughout the country in military operations launched in the name of war against terror.

Sadiq Umrani of the Pakistan People’s Party, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri of National Party Parliamentarians, Maulana Wasay of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), Zamarak Khan Achakzai of Awami National Party, Asad Baloch of BNP-A, Abdul Khaliq Achakzai of PML-N, Abdul Khaliq Basharyar of JUI-I, Sardar Aslam Bizenjo, Mir Rustam Jamali, Zahoor Buledi, Mir Ghafoor Kalmati, Mir Zahoor Khoso and Asfandyar Kakar spoke on the resolution.

A number of speakers demanded that a case should be filed against Gen (retd) Musharraf for killing innocent people in military operations in Balochistan.

Some of them said that he should be arrested and brought to Balochistan for an open trial.

They accused the president of being responsible for the killings in Lal Masjid, Bajaur and other tribal areas and deposing 61 judges in violation of the Constitution and said that he should be punished so that no dictator would dare to commit such illegal acts in the future.

They said they didn’t have any personal enmity with President Musharraf but if he was given a ‘safe passage’ it would not be possible to stop another dictator from snatching power from elected representatives.