Federal ministers advised PM to visit Quetta

ISLAMABAD: Most federal ministers advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to go to Quetta to share the pain and sorrow of the families of the slain miners of the Hazara community. For the last one week, the grieving families have been staging a sit-in with the bodies in the freezing cold, refusing to bury their near and dear ones until the premier visits them.

The News spoke to at least four federal ministers on Friday to seek their opinion on the issue. All four of them were of the view that Prime Minister Imran Khan should visit Quetta to express sympathy with the protesting Hazara community so that the burial of those killed could take place. All these ministers, on condition of not being named, said that it was the prime minister's own choice not to go to Quetta before the burial of the slain miners.

The ministerial sources said that the issue was also taken up in the cabinet meeting where most of the ministers had suggested to the prime minister to go to Quetta. Two of these ministers said that it was initially Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid who had advised the prime minister to wait for a few days.

However, one of these ministers told this correspondent that even the interior ministry later advised Prime Minister Imran Khan in writing to visit the protesting Hazara community. Another minister said that when the prime minister makes up his mind on certain issues, he never changes his decision. "Unfortunately, in this case he had made up his mind not to visit Quetta before the burial of the victims takes place," the minister said.

The prime minister on Friday indirectly confirmed during a public address what his ministers had told The News. On the occasion, the premier issued a highly controversial statement in which he appealed to the Hazara community to bury those killed in the Machh attack and called upon the aggrieved protesters to refrain from "blackmailing the prime minister" by insisting he comes to Quetta as a precondition for the burial.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Special Technology Zones Authority in Islamabad, he assured the protestors that once the burial of those killed takes place, he would fly to Quetta on the same day and meet the families of those killed.

"We have accepted all of their demands. But one of their demands is that the dead will be buried only when the premier visits. I have sent them a message that when all of your demands have been accepted.... you don't blackmail the prime minister of any country like this."

Within a few hours of this controversial statement, federal minister Ali Haider Zaidi, while sharing a written agreement offered to the Hazara community by the government, tweeted: "If all is agreed, then who is playing politics with the bodies of the martyrs?"

Interestingly, Ali Haider Zaidi, a ministerial source confirmed, was among those ministers who in the cabinet meeting had supported the idea of Prime Minister Imran Khan visiting Quetta as per the demand of the Hazara community.