ISLAMABAD: In a bid to placate his former coalition partner, the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday directed the federal ministries to implement the six per cent job quota reserved for Balochistan.
The directives issued from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to all federal ministries and departments said that PM Imran has expressed serious concern over the non–implementation of the job quota. “It should be implemented strictly in all ministries and government departments,” it said.
The PMO also summoned a record of all vacant posts on the reserved seats for Balochistan within 30 days.
On June 17, BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal had announced to part ways with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government after remaining part of the coalition for around 2 years.
Making the announcement in the National Assembly, Mengal said that his party had decided to leave the coalition due to non-implementation of the two agreements made with his party.
The BNP-M is represented by the four parliamentarians in the NA including Akhtar Mengal himself, Muhammad Hashim Notezai, Agha Hassan Baloch and Dr Shahnaz Baloch.
Mengal said his party through two agreements demanded solution to the issue of missing persons and implementation on the National Action Plan in letter and spirit. “Will anybody tell whether there was anything unconstitutional in these two agreements,” he questioned.
He observed that not accepting demands was the same mindset which had been witnessed since the year 1948 demanding that the agreements should be implemented if they were citizens of the country and were not what he said ‘bloody civilians’.
Mengal said that his party waited for implementation on agreements for two years. “We can still wait but you should start something,” he had said.
The BNP-M had earlier parted ways with the government in June 2019, however, the party returned to the coalition after the government accepted all of the six points put forth by the former. One of the six demands made by the BNP-M at that time was to increase the quota of government jobs for Balochistan to 6 per cent.