A meeting of legal experts and tribal leadership convened at Sarawan House under the chairmanship of Sardar-e-Sarawan Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani on monday, to press ahead with legal action against a government decision to merge Mastung district into Quetta division and to dissolve Kalat division altogether.

The session was attended by senior advocates Riaz Ahmed, Atiq Ahmed Khan, Ghulam Rasool Lehri and Mohiuddin Khan Kakar, along with jurist and historian Qazi Hameed Advocate, who was called upon to speak to the historical record supporting Kalat's claim over the territory.

Participants reviewed the legal options available to the tribal leadership and discussed the arguments to be presented before the relevant forum, according to those present at the meeting.

Addressing the gathering, Nawab Aslam Khan Raisani described the government's move as an act of bad faith directed against the people of Balochistan. He argued that Mastung has for centuries formed part of Kalat on historical, cultural, political and geographic grounds, and said the administration attempting the merger had neither the standing nor the justification to dissolve a division with such a long-established identity. He characterised the dissolution of Kalat division as a "dangerous scheme."

Raisani said Balochistan was already reeling from poor governance, and warned that administrative decisions taken against the wishes of the local population risked deepening public resentment. He said successive governments had, in his view, treated the language, culture, geography and identity of the local population as adversarial rather than something to be protected and promoted conduct he likened to patterns associated with colonial-era administration.

The meeting concluded that redrawing Mastung's status was not merely an administrative matter but one tied directly to the historical identity of the local population, and participants agreed to press for the early conclusion of the case being pursued against the merger and the dissolution of Kalat division.

The gathering follows an earlier meeting on the same subject, also held at Sarawan House and chaired by Nawab Aslam Khan Raisani, which brought together advocates Riaz Ahmed, Mohiuddin Khan Kakar, Aamir Lehri, Ghulam Rasool Lehri and Atiq Khan, along with Qazi Hameed. A related session chaired by Raisani and attended by Chief of Bareech Nawab Muhammad Khan Shahwani and Sardar Aasim Jan Sarpara additionally opposed the merger of Kachhi district into Sibi division.

Participants in that earlier meeting argued that the restructuring violated Sections 4, 5 and 6(a) of the Land Revenue Act, 1967, saying neither the public nor their elected representatives had been consulted before the decision was announced