ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Bhutto tonight [Feb 14] said that he was confident that the problem of Baluchistan like other problems that have been resolved, will be solved before long. Winding up the 7-hour long debate on the Baluchistan situation, he told the National Assembly that side by side with measures aimed at providing a social-economic infrastructure, his Government was also continuing its efforts at finding a political solution to the problem of Baluchistan.

Mr Bhutto said that … the Opposition was welcome to form a Government through democratic process in Baluchistan provided they undertook to free the people … from the shackles of sardaris and lead them … to the path of progress. … Mr Bhutto said the problem in Baluchistan was not of his Government’s making, but one which had existed even before Partition and which all through the last 25 years has remained unsolved. … Mr Bhutto refuted what he called “wild allegation and uncharitable accusations of the Op­­position” and maintained that confrontation is not between the people of Baluchistan and the Government of Pakistan, but between the forces of darkness and tyranny and of progress and enlightenment. — Islamabad Bureau

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2024