Rift deepens in PMLN Balochistan

QUETTA: Senior Vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Balochistan, Nawab Salman Khan Khilji, has criticised the party’s provincial leadership, saying that no office-bearer in Balochistan is active.

He declared that the imposition of handpicked individuals over genuine workers would not be tolerated and urged the party to hold immediate intra-party elections in the province.

Addressing a press conference at the Quetta Press Club on Sunday, alongside Mir Zaman Lehri, Syed Zaher Agha, Hassan Khan, Baqar Khan Ghilzai, Afnan Ahmed Kakar, Sardar Siddique Hotak, and others, Khilji said that the province is currently being ruled by “seasonal opportunists” who have no connection with the people and are more focused on looting than serving the public.

He recalled that on October 12, 1999, General Pervez Musharraf overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. Khilji noted that during Musharraf’s eight-year rule, several senior PMLN leaders defected from the party. However, PMLN workers and leaders in Balochistan remained loyal to Nawaz Sharif, even in the most difficult circumstances.

He declared that even today, on October 12, 2025, the same PMLN leaders of Balochistan pledge that if an incident like that of October 12, 1999, happens again, they will not abandon Nawaz Sharif.

Khilji lamented that those workers and leaders who made sacrifices on October 12 have been forgotten. “Today, their families are facing extreme poverty, and their children are unemployed and struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

He criticised the current PMLN leadership in Balochistan for being confined to personal interests. “Workers from Baloch and Pashtun areas come to Quetta to present their issues to the party leadership but return disappointed,” he said.

In response to a question, he said that “seasonal opportunists” are currently imposed on the people of Balochistan, and once the government ends, they will shift to other parties. “When workers approach ministers with their problems, they are told that the ministers paid money for their positions and must first recover that money before addressing workers’ issues,” he added.