QUETTA: Aslam Baloch, the Balochistan Provincial President and Chairman of the Quetta National Party, has launched a fierce critique against the government’s recent notification granting Justice of Peace powers to administrative officers, labeling it a dangerous conspiracy to undermine the judiciary and suppress political dissent.
In a strong statement, Baloch asserted that the move represents a dual-pronged attack. Firstly, he described it as “a conspiracy to interfere in the judicial system and limit the powers of the judiciary,” effectively undermining it at a foundational level. Secondly, he accused the government of weaponizing this tactic to target political opposition. “This tactic is being used to harass political workers and suppress their voices by punishing them in the name of Justice of Peace,” he claimed.
Baloch contextualized the controversy within a longer political struggle, recalling that activists had long fought for the separation of the judiciary from the administration. He argued that the current “imposed fake assemblies,” a veiled reference to allegations of electoral fraud symbolized by ‘Form 47’, are now executing a “systematic conspiracy” to reverse that progress and silence public voice, a move he declared “unacceptable.”
He lamented that Balochistan has become a testing ground for “all undemocratic and extra-constitutional measures.” Baloch concluded with a firm demand, stating that an assembly born out of disputed legitimacy has no mandate to create such a crisis and insisted the controversial notification must be withdrawn immediately. The statement sets the stage for potential political and legal confrontation over the powers of the provincial bureaucracy.
Meanwhile in a significant breakthrough, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a notorious human smuggler described as a ringleader of an international trafficking network during an operation in Quetta.
The FIA’s Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Quetta conducted the raid in the Hazarganji area, apprehending the suspect identified as Yusuf, alias Hamidullah. According to an FIA spokesperson, the arrested individual was listed among the most wanted human smugglers for 2024, highlighting his prominence in illicit cross-border operations.
