QUETTA: Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) president Sardar Akhtar Mengal said on Sunday that his party has only four seats in the National Assembly, but it played a very important role in ousting the government of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Speaking at an Iftar dinner hosted in his honour by BNP-M leader Mir Basit Sultan, he criticised the policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government and claimed that Imran Khan had never given respect to BNP-M members while he was prime minister. The former prime minister should have understood the importance of BNP-M’s four votes in the National Assembly, he added.

BNP-M senior vice president Malik Abdul Wali Khan Kakar, deputy secretary general Malik Naseer Ahmed Shahwani, MPA Sana Baloch, Quetta district president Ghulam Nabi Marri and other party leaders were present on the occasion.

Mr Mengal claimed that after formation of the PTI government in 2018, Imran Khan and other leaders of the PTI said on many occasions that the BNP-M votes in the National Assembly had no importance for them.

Says his party will never compromise on the issue of missing persons

He criticised Imran Khan and other leaders of the PTI for using foul language against their political opponents. He accused PTI leaders of promoting a culture of mud-slinging in politics.

Mr Mengal claimed that like the previous PTI government in the Centre, the previous Balochistan government led by former chief minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani also did not give due importance to 10 votes of the BNP-M in the provincial assembly.

The BNP-M chief said his party joined the PTI coalition government in the Centre on six points that included the recovery of missing persons. Though the PTI government had offered the BNP-M the ministries of its choice, the party did not comprise on the issue of the recovery of missing persons, he said.

He claimed that some political parties earned millions of rupees by selling their votes in the Senate elections. But, he added, the BNP-M’s members of the provincial assembly cast their votes according to their party’s advice.

He said the BNP-M would never compromise on the issue of missing persons. “It is a promise of the party leadership and its workers that they would continue their struggle until the recovery of all missing persons,” he added.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2022