QUETTA: The Baloch­istan Assembly on Monday adopted a resolution condemning violent incidents that took place in the wake of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s arrest on May 9, and termed them a pre-planned conspiracy to create unrest and disturbance.

The opposition and treasury members both condemned the May 9 incidents and said that arrest of political leaders was not unprecedented in the country, but it was not a justification to put the country’s integrity at stake and destroy public and private properties.

MPA Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi moved the resolution which said that on May 9, PTI workers and supporters took to the streets across the country and ransacked and burnt private properties, including sensitive buildings.

The resolution further said that during these violent demonstrations, the PTI protesters also attacked the Corps Comm­a­nder’s House in Lahore which was not only ransacked, but also set on fire.

Langove says Baloch were termed anti-state when they reacted in similar way

In Peshawar, they burnt the building of Radio Pakistan and injured hundreds of police personnel, including senior officers.

“Such tragic incidents were not witnessed earlier in the country,” the resolution said, adding that the PTI leadership had provoked a few hundred armed groups against the security forces which even the enemy was not able to do over the past 75 years.

The resolution further said that the house condemned these violent incidents in strongest words.

Provincial Home Mini­ster Mir Ziaullah Langove said when the people of Balochistan reacted in a similar way, they were termed anti-state and urged the governmet to treat the miscreants involved in the May 9 incidents the same way.

Abdul Khaliq Hazara, the provincial minister for sports and culture, said hundreds of Hazara community people were killed in Balochistan, but the community never reacted in the way the PTI workers and supporters did.

Meanwhile, members of the Balochistan Union of Journalists boycotted the assembly proceedings on Monday in protest against the sacking of journalists from different media houses.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023