QUETTA: The Federal [Government] is determined to extend full socio-economic benefits of people’s rule to tribesmen in the tribal areas of Baluchistan. This categorical … declaration was made by Mr Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, the Federal Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, this afternoon [Sept 28] at Kohlu. … The Minister was addressing a group of Marri Tribesmen who laid down their arms recently as a result of the amnesty declared by the Prime Minister. …

The Minister said that every effort would be made to provide food, clothing, education and health facilities in the tribal areas to expedite rehabilitation of tribesmen. He told them that the Government was their own and were to serve them. He appealed to the elders of the tribe to prevail upon the few others who were still being misled by vested interests to come down from the hills and join hands with the Government to build a stronger Pakistan.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from the UN,] Pakistan’s Minister of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs, Mr Aziz Ahmed, warned yesterday [Sept 27] that the underground nuclear explosion detonated by India last May might have removed restraints on the spread of nuclear weapons.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2024