ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Senate Deputy Chairman Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali has asked the nationalists, especially the Baloch, to shun their short-term electoral ambitions and interact with President Pervez Musharraf to achieve greater benefits for the people of the province.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday, Mr Jamali said the sub-committee led by Senator Wasim Sajjad of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan was seriously working on a provincial autonomy package under directions from the president and the prime minister, which, hopefully, would lead to constitutional amendments to be passed by parliament by August.

He said the Iran-Pakistan-India and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipelines were a major target of the forces which were striving to create ethnic and regional divisions among the people.

He described the forces impeding the process of expanding the scope of provincial autonomy as fifth columnists and said they were sowing the seeds of discontent to stall the biggest development plan in the country’s history.

He said the law and order situation created by such elements was part of the ‘great game’ of those seeking dominance on the Arabian Sea through the Gwadar port.

Mr Jamali appealed to the nationalist forces of Balochistan to begin the process of negotiations instead of falling in the trap of the ‘fifth columnists’.

He said he had begun meeting various Baloch nationalist leaders to impress upon them to grab the opportunity of gaining maximum political strength through the development of their province.

He appealed to the Baloch and Pukhtun nationalist parties in the parliamentary committee with other opposition parties to seize the historic opportunity of bringing about vital changes in the constitution by giving their input to accelerate the process of finalisation of the report.

Mr Jamali said development projects worth Rs40 billion were under way in the province in March 2006, of which Rs30 billion schemes were in areas belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

He said the MMA had the most important portfolios in the province, as a result of which the Pakistan Muslim League’s chief minister and his team were unable to provide sufficient jobs and development opportunities to their areas.

Mr Jamali alleged that the MMA was filling hundreds of vacant posts by accommodating its workers in violation of merit.