PM’s correct approach to address Balochistan issue
AFTER exhaustive discussions and interaction, which has been termed by some circles as unnecessary delay, the Government appears to be on the right track on the issue of Balochistan. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani personally prioritised the issue and the pragmatic approach evolved by him is reflective of the seriousness of the Government to address the issue squarely. All this was amply proved when the Prime Minister added some new dimensions to the package called “Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan” while winding up two-day debate in the joint session of Parliament on Wednesday on the set of constitutional, political, administrative and economic proposals aimed at resolving the long-standing problem.
The speech of the Prime Minister was a bold deviation from the past when attempts were made by the successive Governments to address a sensitive and critical issue in a cosmetic manner. During debate in Parliament, it was rightly pointed out by some saner voices that the issue of Balochistan is political and it should be handled as such. In this backdrop, it is heartening that the chief executive included in the package the vital political points that have the potential to pay back if they were pursued with the same spirit and priority. The most important aspect of the new approach was to invite estranged Baloch leadership for talks and the PM made it clear that he would feel no hesitation in visiting veteran Baloch leaders for interaction on the issues involved. Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Wasim Sajjad has made a very pertinent suggestion that the good offices of three non-controversial personalities having necessary clout with Baloch leadership should be utilized to make the dialogue process meaningful and result-oriented. We hope that the Government would assign this responsibility of opening up channels with both local and exiled leadership to Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro, Balakh Sher Mazari and Sardar Attaullah Mengal without wastage of further time. Though a significant number of cases have already been dropped, more are in the offing and there are bright prospects of progress on the issue of missing persons but it would be more appropriate if a general amnesty is announced, which would have a soothing effect on the overall bitter environment. The Prime Minister has also done well in announcing withdrawal of Army from Kohlu and Sui and its replacement with FC and transferring control of the FC to the provincial Chief Minister. This, coupled with abolition of seven check posts, would go a long way in addressing concerns and demands of the people of Balochistan. Not only this, but a sizeable grant of one billion rupees has also been released for the internally displaced persons of Dera Bugti. The package also contains a number of good initiatives to address issues of poverty, backwardness and unemployment. The announcement with regard to provision of jobs to all graduates from Balochistan, beginning of the process to create and fill five thousand vacancies in the province, lowering of qualification for recruitment in the FC to afford more employment opportunities to Baloch youth, commitment to hire locals in the Coast Guard and launching of technical and vocational training programme for Baloch boys and girls to enable them to avail employment opportunities at home and abroad, would mean economic empowerment of the masses and removal of sense of frustration of the youth. It is also good that an equitable formula for Gas Development Surcharge has been evolved and the Province would get dues worth 120 billion rupees on this account. But as pointed out by S M Zafar during his speech in Parliament, one of the major causes of frustration and sense of deprivation in Balochistan is that the benefits announced by the Federal Government in the past were digested by influential local mafia. It is time to ensure that the benefits trickle down to the common man as this is the surest way to resolve the Balochistan problem on a durable basis. It is also a fact that foreigners especially Indians are grossly interfering in the Province and only on Wednesday the Interior Minister informed media persons that four trucks loaded with Indian-made arms were seized. And Chairman US Joints Chief of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has said that he has raised the issue of interference in Balochistan with the Indian leadership. The very fact that Mullen took up the case with India means that the United States too was convinced about Indian interference in the Province. Though the Prime Minister has declared that it was for Pakistan to decide as to when and where to present proof in this regard yet we believe that the country can’t further delay in view of the urgency and magnitude of the problem.
Nazir Naji
COMMENT: Plans to sabotage the Balochistan package —Malik Siraj Akbar
Backed by powerful quarters, the FC is simultaneously penetrating Baloch society as a community police, intelligence agency, force to crush political dissent and a tool of propaganda against the Baloch nationalist leadership
Smooth implementation of the Balochistan package, as announced by Prime Minister Gilani, is extremely essential to immediately de-escalate tensions in the insurgency-stricken Balochistan province. Two months after the announcement of the package, indications have now emerged on the political milieu to foresee the sabotage of the multi-pronged Balochistan package. What Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, General Secretary of the PML-Q, bills as “a hawkish mindset in the establishment that does not believe in the rights of smaller provinces” is once again out to derail the reconciliation process in Balochistan.
On January 15, the Frontier Corps (FC) opened indiscriminate fire on a peaceful political rally of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) in Khuzdar, reported the local chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). This unprovoked firing killed two young students and injured four others. The killing of political activists by a federal paramilitary force that is often seen as an ‘alien force’ in Balochistan has sparked a renewed phase of protests and demonstrations across Balochistan.
The FC has become a new power centre in the restive province. Having a clearly defined constitutional mandate to guard Balochistan’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan, the FC has, on the contrary, begun work on multiple tasks. The worst among such responsibilities is the job to crush political opponents. Last year, the FC besieged the offices of three Quetta-based newspapers in order to force them to give up their editorial policies and follow the establishment’s line. While two newspapers bravely resisted the pressure, Daily Asaap had to succumb to mounting pressure and shut down its publication for good.
The FC is also blamed for whisking away political activists and handing them over to intelligence agencies. In one such significant breach of law, FC officials whisked away three prominent Baloch nationalist leaders –Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch — from the legal chamber of Kachkol Ali Baloch, former leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, in April last year. No police station agreed to register a case against the FC in connection with the ‘disappearance’ of the Baloch leaders nor did the courts take notice despite submission of an application by the lawyer of the three missing leaders. A week later, the dead bodies of all three Baloch leaders were recovered at a deserted place in the outskirts of Turbat district.
Widely regarded as a controversial and belligerent official, Major General Saleem Nawaz, the Inspector General (IG) of the FC, has always remained defensive about the activities of his force. In the first place, Major General Nawaz insisted that those who whisked away the three Baloch leaders from Turbat did not belong to the FC. Similarly, he contradicted the local media, political parties and the HRCP regarding the fresh killings in Khuzdar district by insisting that the FC had not been deployed at the protest rally where the firing took place.
Observers believe that the IG exercises more power than the provincial chief minister. He is the only official deployed in the province who does not hesitate in giving statements related to foreign affairs. Backed by powerful quarters, the FC is simultaneously penetrating Baloch society as a community police, intelligence agency, force to crush political dissent and a tool of propaganda against the Baloch nationalist leadership.
It is not the first time that hawks in the establishment are discouraging a political solution to the Balochistan conflict. The timing of such gruesome developments, like the one in Khuzdar, is significant given the fact that the political leadership is making some progress in settling the Balochistan issue through dialogue. The Khuzdar killings must have come as a major disappointment for Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani who was still busy celebrating the breakthrough achieved among the federal government and the four provinces on the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award at Gwadar.
Though the Balochistan package was widely rejected by nationalist parties, it still has the potential to mitigate public disillusionment provided that most, if not all, of the recommendations proposed in the package are implemented without any delay. While the government has acted too slowly to induct some drastic changes on the political, social and economic fronts, hawks in the establishment, on the other hand, have unfortunately moved faster to sabotage the Balochistan package.
For instance, political activists have gone missing in Balochistan even after the presentation of the package. No doubt, the issue of missing persons has become the major source of unrest in Balochistan. On the eve of presenting the Balochistan package, Prime Minister Gilani promised that all missing persons would soon return home to celebrate Eid with their families. Though the government had issued a verified list of 992 missing persons, hardly any were released. Chief Minister Raisani added fuel to the fire when he said in Khuzdar that many of the missing persons had deliberately gone underground merely to malign state intelligence agencies. On the other hand, children and women hailing from the families of the missing persons have once again established a hunger strike camp before the Quetta Press Club to coax the government into releasing the missing persons. They are planning a long march from Quetta to Islamabad in the coming days.
The kind of stand the provincial and federal governments have taken on the issue of enforced disappearances clearly shows their powerlessness to deal with this ‘sensitive’ matter entailing ‘sensitive institutions’. Hence, no progress has been made in recovering the missing persons, even after the presentation of the Balochistan package. Worse still, the recent firing incident on the protestors in Khuzdar is likely to further jeopardise the peace process in Balochistan.
Elements in the establishment sabotaged a similar previous attempt to find a political solution to the Balochistan conflict back in 2004 when a parliamentary committee headed by Mushahid Hussain Syed had almost achieved some progress in talks with Baloch leaders. As the leaders hailing from Marri, Bugti and Mengal tribes and the National Party agreed to negotiate with the parliamentary committee on Balochistan on all outstanding issues, security forces derailed the peace process by arresting Baloch political activists and carrying out search operations in different districts. As a result, the Baloch leaders withdrew from the parliamentary committee in protest. Even then, the government could have done some damage control if the recommendations of the parliamentary committee were wholeheartedly implemented. According to Mushahid Hussain, the chairman of the committee, elements in the establishment did not allow the implementation of the recommendations of the parliamentary committee.
Another area that merits attention in the wake of the newly announced Balochistan package is the official plan to provide 20,000 jobs to the unemployed youth of Balochistan. The provincial government has already given the department of Services and General Administration the responsibility to collect forms and undertake the recruitment process. Many Baloch see the recruitment process sceptically because the government in Quetta has not chalked out a proper recruitment policy to ensure the employment of deserving people.
The Baloch complain that a majority of the beneficiaries of these jobs are the urban non-Baloch youth, while the rural youth does not have the resources to travel to the provincial capital, Quetta, to apply for these announced jobs. Likewise, they demand that jobs be distributed among the districts so that all districts in Balochistan benefit from the package. Under the current recruitment procedure, the biggest beneficiaries are the young boys and girls from Quetta.
On the other hand, youth from remote parts of the province who have truly been affected by the turmoil in the province, fear that they may not be able to compete on open merit with the youth of Quetta who are educationally more competent than those from backward areas. Chief Minister Raisani has completely rejected the proposal of distributing jobs to districts by saying that all aspiring candidates must be selected on open merit. If merit is the sole benchmark for recruitment in the regressive province of Balochistan, ground realities suggest that unemployed youth from Dera Bugti and Kohlu will most probably remain outside the national mainstream forever.
The government has to first of all minimise the use of force by the security forces against the people of Balochistan in order to save the reconciliation process from being hijacked and elements responsible for the Khuzdar firing incident must be brought to justice. Secondly, the government must not waste much time in implementing the recommendations of the Balochistan package. Durable peace in Balochistan is intertwined with sustainability of government policies and timely implementation of the Balochistan package.
The writer is a staff member and can be reached at [email protected]