Good news on Balochistan in a few weeks, says minister

ISLAMABAD: There could be a ‘good news’ in two to four weeks about Balochistan as a result of secret ‘back-channel’ contacts, a minister told the Senate on Friday while ruling out talks with those seeking independence for the troubled province.

But Interior Minister Rehman Malik, while responding to an opposition member’s concern about a perceived ‘brewing conspiracy’ in the country’s largest but least populated province, ignored a query why Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had not yet convened a promised all-parties conference on Balochistan.

However, he assured the house that ‘all 14 points’ recommended by an earlier parliamentary committee on Balochistan ‘are going to be implemented’.

A young Pakistan Muslim League-Q senator from Punjab, Jamal Khan Leghari, complimented Mr Gilani for handing over to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh what Islamabad calls proofs of Indian involvement in Balochistan through its consulates in some border areas of Afghanistan when the two men met at the Egyptian seaside retreat of Sharm el Sheikh last week on the sidelines of a non-aligned summit.

The senator also voiced his serious concern about what he called a ‘East Pakistan-like situation’ developing in Balochistan where he said non-Balochi settlers, including teachers, were being ‘killed one by one’ and Pakistani flag was not allowed to fly on and national anthem not allowed to be sung in educational institutions in some areas.

Mr Malik, who said he ‘fully’ respected Mr Leghari’s sentiments, did not refer to India, which denies the charges, but told the house that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whom he met recently, had agreed to the establishment of three bio-metric checkposts on the border to stop movement of militants he said were being trained in training camps in Afghanistan.

The minister acknowledged that the situation in Balochistan, which has witnessed a low-intensity insurgency for the past few yeas, ‘was bad’, but said it was improving and would further improve in the future with the government seeking a consensus of all stakeholders about the future of the province.

‘But there can be no talks with those who talk of independence,’ he said and promised unspecified action against a Baloch nationalist leader, Harbayar Marri, over an allegedly separatist statement made in a recent interview in London for a Pakistani television channel.

‘With some back-channel talks going on, God-willing, problems will be resolved,’ Mr Malik said, and added: ‘Because of efforts to persuade those estranged, it is possible that I give you a still better good news in 2-4 weeks.’

Mr Leghari asked why the government was not seeking deportation of Mr Marri, reported to be a leader of the so-called Balochistan Liberation Army that has claimed many incidents of violence in the province, particularly after the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Khan Bugti inside a cave hideout in a military operation in August 2006.

The minister called Mr Bugti a ‘martyr’ and said it was a fact that Balochistan had not been given its due rights and that the “distress will remain” until these rights were given to the Baloch people.

He did not respond to Mr Leghari’s demand for the deportation of Mr Marri, a son of the veteran nationalist leader Khair Bkahsh Marri, but said ‘action will be taken’ regarding his statement that he did not recognise Pakistan.