Editorial:http://www.thebalochhal.com
It seems that the forced marriage between Balochistan and Pakistan is not working anymore. When countries reach such a critical stage when their citizens assertively whine about state-sponsored torture and brutality, the best thing for the governments in such circumstances is to ensure damage control.
In Balochistan’s context, the government could have saved its face provided that it had agreed that March 23rd was not the right time to celebrate the Pakistan Day in a province where a freedom movement has been gaining momentum. It is not as if that the government functionaries did not know the facts and the ground situation. In fact, all these facts were deliberately kept aside to please the ego of an arrogant military.
We need to address at least three basic questions in the wake of the disgraceful events of March 23rd when Pakistani authorities shut down mobile phone services across Balochistan to ‘protect’ the province from ‘terrorists’.
First, has Balochistan historically been an enthusiastic celebrator of the Pakistan Day?
Second, is Balochistan in the partying mood at a time when the country’s armed forces are blamed for killing at least four hundred disappeared young Baloch activists while still illegally detaining thousands others?
Third, does the Constitution of Pakistan entrust the army and the Frontier Corps (FC) the responsibility to organize, promote and, in worse cases, enforce events on national holidays? Why do we need such activities in the first place? How many countries in the world give their armies the task to make people ‘patriotic citizens’?
All of the above questions need detailed debate. We just know that the Pakistan army is officially provoking the Baloch. Provocation from the army is not something aline to the Baloch who have seen it in worst shapes in the past in the form of arrests, disappearance, torture and murder. The other methods of provocation have also included formation of underground anti-nationalist armed groups, disruption of political and cultural events, registration of fake cases against dissenting political leaders and induction of widespread internet censorship.
In Pakistan, the political leadership has historically remained corrupt but has at least proven itself a lot more wise as compared to the army. The military, on the other hand, has not only created a number of problems but it has also enormously contributed to their further deterioration. In addition, the military has blocked every effort by the political leadership, civil society and the media to at least open a door for reconciliation and resolution of political disputes. The men in khaki remain absolutely disdainful to the idea of peace. They think use of brute face can fix every problem.
The suspension of the entire cell phone service in Balochistan on March 23rd shows that the actual powerful folks who are officially responsible to deal with Balochistan suffer from serious mental illnesses. Their actions must worry us because they can go to the extent of shutting down the whole network of mobile phone service and officially describing every civilian as a ‘terrorist’ or at least ‘terror suspect’ to justify their ignorance and arrogance. Having taken all these ridiculous measures, the non-Baloch-non-Balochistani Commander of the Southern Command tells us that the “active participation of the people of Balochistan…is a slap on the face of all those miscreants who are creating rifts among their own countrymen and doing negative propaganda against the country at the behest of their foreign masters.”
If Islamabad has decided to mark the Pakistan Day in Balochistan in this style from now on, we must be brutally honest and note that the generals have brought an other chapter of Pakistan’s history to an end. As we stand at crossroads of the history, we classify the Pakistan Day celebrations into two categories. First, school children (used to) mark the Pakistan Day by singing national songs and participating in speech contests. Second, the army and FC shut down mobile phone services, censor the internet, influence the electronic media to celebrate the Pakistan day inside garrison and army-administered schools. We know that Baloch children have already discarded the first pattern of history for some years now while the army and FC now take control of the future style of celeberations. We will probably not see any Pakistan Day celebrations in Balochistan in the future where people voluntarily and smilingly participate in national celebrations. Gun is not an appropriate tool to win public hearts nor is the use of brute force the right channel to make citizens love a country.
Patriotism flourishes amid democracy, equality and justice. Balochistan lacks all of the above fundamental reasons to join rest of Pakistan to mark the so-called Pakistan Day.
Who has benefited from ‘forced celebrations” ? Baloch nationalists, of course. Sher Mohammad Bugti, a spokesman for the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), congratulated the entire Baloch nation for Islamabad’s expression of unprecedented desperation,insecurity and possessiveness. We have no option but to trust his claim that Islamabad has become too afraid of the increasing popularity of the Baloch nationalist movement.Even the British, during the colonial days, did not treat the Baloch so disrespectfully and violently as Pakistan is doing today.
These idiotic measures taken by the army will inevitably popularize the nationalist movement in Balochistan in the future.
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