ISLAMABAD, July 17: While offering dialogue to the ‘estranged elements’ in Balochistan, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said here on Tuesday that the government would not allow a handful of miscreants to make the patriotic people of the province hostage.

Addressing the participants of a workshop on “Balochistan situation: perception and realities, the way forward” at the National Defence University, he said the people of other provinces would go an extra mile to help the people of Balochistan. He said the unrest in Balochistan was an ‘internal issue’ of the country which would be amicably resolved by the government and people through collective wisdom and unity.

The prime minister accused foreign elements of creating law and order in the province and said unrest in small pockets could not be equated with insurgency, though it could have simmering impact on other areas if not tackled immediately. He said the situation in Balochistan should be seen in its true perspective keeping in view its internal and external linkages.

“There is not one but many fronts on which we need to fight for the cause of the people of Balochistan.”

Prime Minister Ashraf expressed the need for holding constructive dialogue and political engagement which, he said, could steer Balochistan and the country out of the crises.

He said the government would do everything to restore peace and security in Balochistan, but “we will not talk to those who are against Pakistan’s sovereignty and its flag”.

The prime minister urged the national media to refrain from towing the line of foreign media which, he alleged, was projecting the Balochistan issue ‘disproportionately’. “The foreign media is undermining the national solidarity and causing anxiety among the people of Pakistan.”

He described socio-economic deprivation as the real issue of Balochistan, but it was receiving proportionately little attention from the media.

He said sectarian killings in the province needed to be seen in context of geo-strategic linkages to the Balochistan issue. He said non-state actors and foreign-sponsored groups under the garb of sectarian cover were fuelling the fire that warranted vigilance at governmental and societal levels.—APP