GWADAR: Former chief minister of Balochistan and senior leader of National Party (NP) Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has criticised the federal government’s move to grant citizenship rights to Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He said the NP would not let anyone turn Baloch people into minority on their own soil.

Speaking at a public meeting in Behman area of Turbat on Sunday, he asked Baloch people and workers of the National Party to be politically more vigilant and active to safeguard their genuine rights and interests and to meet future challenges.

He also asked party workers to immediately intensify their political activities across the province and to make functional all units of the party.

Dr Baloch said that despite being part of the previous PML-N-led provincial government, the National Party had never compromised on interests of the local people of the province.

He said that the NP government not only had protected the Baloch identity, it also retrieved 350,000 acres of land from powerful land mafia in Gwadar and handed it over to local people.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018