Mian Raza Rabbani, a leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party Patriot (PPPP), criticised the government for failing in announcing the National Finance Commission (NFC) award.
He said the population should not be made the only basis for the distribution of income, and stressed that it should be on the basis of resources contributed by the province.
Rabbani said that in the Senate session, commencing on February 02, the issue of Balochistan would be raised jointly by the opposition parties in the Senate.
Raza Rabbani said that being the opposition leader in the Senate, it was his responsibility to help redress the grievances of all provinces, especially the small ones.
He thanked the opposition parties, including the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Awami National Party (ANP) and Ponam, for their support to appoint him opposition leader in the Senate.
The problems could only be resolved through dialogue, he said, and added the use of power was no solution to any matter.
He said the government should start dialogue with the people of Balochistan, and added it should listen to their reservations about cantonments, mega projects, NFC award etc.
Raza Rabbani demanded of the government to hold local bodies' elections in all the 55 cantonments of the country, and opposed the proposal for reducing the seats in union councils from 21 to 13.
Speaking next PML-N leader Mamnoon Hussain said that the institutions had been destroyed by the government, and opined that the military interference with the political affairs was its main cause.
He stressed for joint efforts to strengthen democracy in the country, and assured the leaders that the PML-N would play its positive role along with the other parties.
"We believe that the year-2005 would be the year of election and whoever succeeds and comes into power, all the parties should extend support to it," he said.
PML-N's other leader Salim Zia said that they were not against Pakistan Army, but were opposed to some of the generals for their inference with the political matters.
He said all the current issues, including Kalabagh Dam, Sui, Gwadar Port, NFC award and others should be discussed in the Senate and the National Assembly so that it could be resolved with consensus.
He vowed that the PML-N would not compromise with the dictators at any cost. "We are not in hurry to come in power, we have started a long struggle," he said, and asked the other parties to start joint struggle for ousting the dictators from the political scene.
Senior politician Mairaj Muhammad Khan said that Pakistan was facing the 1971-like situation and all the parties should think seriously about the solution of it.
Referring to the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report, he said that the debacle of Dhaka was caused by martial law and military interference with the political affairs.
"We should try to stop repeating the same practice, otherwise the situation could be more critical", he asserted.
Balochistan National Party (BNP) leader Mir Hasil Bazinjo said that the Sui issue could be solved easily, but the government did not realise the situation.
If the accused was arrested in time, the situation would not have deteriorated, he added.
He said half a division army was in Sui and a division in Gwadar, and added around 500 families of the Sui had been asked to leave their homes and shift to 28 kilometres away from the town.
The situation was critical, he said, and demanded of all the political parties to play their role before the situation could be out of control.
PPP leaders Habibuddin Junaidi, Muzaffar Shajrah, Fouzia Wahab, Taj Haider, Rashid Rabbani, Saeed Ghani, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leaders Anas Noorani, Hafiz Taqi, Muhammad Hussain Mehnati, MNA, Younus Barai, MPA, Maulana Abdul Karim Abid, Maulana Asad Thanvi, Mufti Usman Yar Khan, Aslam Mujahid, ANP leaders Amin Khatak and the host PML (N) leaders Khwaja Tariq Nazir, Malik Naeem, Sardar Rahim, Tariq Khan and others were present on the occasion.