WARNING ON BALOCHISTAN SITUATION

The Prime Minister of Pakistan addressed the National Defence University Seminar on Balochistan in which prominent personalities of the province also participated. In his key note speech, the Prime Minister talked tough warning to deal with Balochistan situation firmly otherwise such problems will arise in other parts of Pakistan. He thought that insurgency is localized and confined to a small area of Balochistan. He said the Government is ready to address the grievances of the people and invited the Baloch militants to come to negotiation table and all their legitimate grievances will be addressed accordingly. Almost all the Government leaders are addressing the militant leaders, rightly or wrongly, ignoring the rest of the people on the political and democratic fronts. The Government is encouraging the law enforcing agencies to take action against the people from the political and democratic front as most of the missing persons were not militants and they never fought against the State, to say it precisely. Like others, they had their own political opinion on constitutional, political and economic issues. The entire action had been directed against the peaceful political activists since 2004 when General Pervez Musharraf took the decision to punish all the Baloch people, particularly their leaders, for their non conformist views. Thus the views of the Government are generally directed from the biased opinion of state functionaries in the establishment asking for mass killing of Baloch people to resolve the Baloch problem, once for all. Former President General Pervez Musharraf recently addressed a select gathering of former army officers in Sindh Club and proposed a full fledged military operation be launched to wipe out all forms of resistance in Balochistan. ‘Stop appeasing the Balochs,’ he ordered the Government from exile. The hawkish views are still dominating in the important sections of the Pakistani State. The military mindset is visibly prevailing on the minds of political leaders of Pakistan at the top and they are saying the same as the hawks used to say during the regime of General Pervez Musharraf. The issue of Balochistan is political in nature and it should be handled politically. There were high hopes when Mr. Asif Zardari was elected as President of Pakistan. He knew the people, the political activists and leaders and got the capacity and capability to convince all those involved in militancy to a peaceful political process. He was pushed on the sideline by the hawks in the administration forced the Government to continue the policies of General Pervez Musharraf in a more harsh manner. Now the Prime Minister is proposing harsher action against the people in Balochistan. This is a wrong policy and a misjudgement on the prevailing political situation in Balochistan. Such actions will definitely lead to a complete disaster as Pakistan can ill afford when it is isolated in the whole world and not a single brotherly country is coming to its aid at this difficult juncture. We are again proposing that the Government should create proper and suitable environment before luring the militants to come to the negotiation table finding an amicable solution of Balochistan within the framework of one Pakistan. For this, there should be an end to fighting at once, all combat forces, both troops and Para-military forces, should go back to barrack or to peace time position as suggested by the Supreme Court Bar Association in its recent conference, release all the prisoners, including missing persons in official custody and stop misleading the public opinion by telling lies on all forum. Balochs are Pakistanis and citizens of this country and enjoy equal rights and they should be treated equally as citizens of Pakistan. Any ill treatment to the Balochs, mainly the non combatants and men from the political and democratic front, will bring a bad name for our country. The Government should take all those steps suggested by the SCBA seminar in Islamabad for creating a congenial environment for holding talks with all the sections of Baloch society. Without such measures, the entire process is doomed and it will lack support of the Baloch people who are master of their own destiny. Overwhelming majority of the Baloch people, including leaders of the political and democratic front, will support such a move from the Government that could lead to meaningful talks on all relevant issues.