The fire called Balochistan

www.sananews.net
BY:Aasim Zafar Khan

Things have reached a boiling point in Balochistan. And sooner or later, something’s bound to give. All stories come to an end. Good or bad, happy or sad, there’s always an ending. It may not be what we want, it may not be what we expect, but that depends, on how the journey has been. Here in Pakistan, there are many stories unfolding concurrently, the saddest of which is the tragedy of Balochistan.

Balochistan appears now at the point of no return. Come what may, the stakes in Pakistan’s largest province have been raised so high, that good or bad and sooner rather than later, something is bound to happen.

For decades now, the Baloch sardars have been poisoning their locals with delusions of grandeur and modernity, with promises of equality, justice and an honest day’s work. After years of taking royalties from the state and not passing anything forward, they are now under pressure to come good on their word to their people. Or face a mass revolt.

At stake now is the age-old tribal sardari system in Balochistan, which can definitely be thought of as one of the major reasons for Balochistan’s backwardness. If the sardars don’t take their Baloch population to prosperity, they will be taken down by their own kin. Balochistan then, in the absence of the sardars will be in a state of a deadly vacuum. And as the saying goes, if you leave a vacuum, someone or something will eventually fill it. The Baloch sardars could also take a stand. Stand firm, putting pressure on Islamabad for deliverance. For dues of 60 years past.

These are two completely different paths, and in Balochistan, there is a difference of opinion amongst the sardars as to which path to tread. One path champions dialogue with Islamabad, in search for a solution, whereas the other path is breaking away from Pakistan into an independent Balochistan; to quote Martin Luther King, by any means necessary.

For Islamabad, an independent Balochistan is simply unacceptable; they cannot have another December 1971. Hence only the path of dialogue remains. But all the actions that come under dialogue, like the All Parties Conference (APC) and the Aaghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan (AHB) package, have been completely ineffective in redressing 60 plus years of injustice against the Baloch population. Therefore, Islamabad needs to act, and act quickly to ensure that the issue of Balochistan can be resolved peacefully via dialogue. Or else they could soon be hearing a unified call for independence from Zhob to Quetta and Turbat. What then?

The state will not sit back if the cry of an independent Balochistan rises above a certain level. Expect a massive military and covert operation against Baloch freedom fighters, expect human rights to be overlooked, expect forced abductions, and extra-judicial killings. This will only add more fuel to the fire, and in the long run, more fuel will be added to the fire called Balochistan.

The political leadership must realise that its current actions, inactions and political point-scoring are not helping Balochistan. It has 60 years of injustice to reverse, and it must act now.

All the prominent separatist leaders say that the backlog of what’s owed to Balochistan is so large; one won’t know where to begin. But begin we must. How about royalties, jobs, education, health, security, growth, modernity, and freedom of speech? These are good starting points. If the state was to take these steps, wholeheartedly, in good faith and without failure or delays, it could, sometime in the near future, be able to bring to the table those who are currently singing the song of independence in Balochistan.

Otherwise we can expect more of the same reaction as we saw a few days ago when Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that cases against two Baloch separatist leaders, Hyrbyair Marri and Brahamdagh Bugti would be withdrawn. A prominent Baloch leader and current member of the Senate Mir Israr Ullah Khan Zehri scoffed and replied: The interior minister can’t even remove one check post!