Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday constituted a four-member committee to hold talks with Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) President Sardar Akhtar Mengal, a statement issued by the party chief’s political secretary Jameel Soomro said.
The committee consists of Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Farhatullah Babar, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Khursheed Ahmed Shah, which has been tasked with winning over Mengal’s support to convince him to vote against the government’s budget bill, Shah told a private news channel.
The committee will hold discussions over Mengal’s six-point agenda, agreement over which is believed vital to win support of the BNP-M chief. A meeting is likely to take place today (Friday) but there has been no official confirmation, Shah added.
The BNP-M chief is an ally of the government. His six-point agenda includes recovery of missing persons, implementation of the National Action Plan, implementation of six percent quota for Balochistan in the federal government, immediate repatriation of Afghan refugees and the construction of dams in the province to resolve the acute water crisis.
Another private news channel reported that Akhtar Mengal had sent a message to Bilawal for the formation of committee and also offered to join the opposition in return if the demands were supported.
Mengal had agreed to become a government ally only after the PTI promised to implement his demands but has voiced discontent over the lack of action. He had formally complained about the non-implementation of the six-point agreement in a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in March this year.
The PTI also constituted a three-member delegation on Wednesday to oversee the implementation of Mengal’s agenda after he issued a covert threat to abstain from voting on the federal budget.
