Pakistan has conveyed to the United States its serious concerns over a powerful US Congress committee’s meeting to be held on Wednesday exclusively on the issue of Balochistan.
Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit told Online that the Pakistani embassy in Washington had taken strong notice of the scheduled meeting of the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs to deliberate on the issue of Balochistan. The official website of the US Congress displayed the notification and topic of the meeting. Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who recently expressed support for an independent Balochistan in an article, will chair the hearing. “Perhaps we should even consider support for a Balochistan carved out of Pakistan to diminish radical power there (in Pakistan),” Rohrabacher had written in his article. “Our embassy in Washington is already in touch with the organisers of the hearing of the committee. They know how we feel about it. Our concerns have been forcefully conveyed in Washington,” Basit told Online when he was asked about US legislators’ planned deliberation over the most sensitive issue of Pakistan. The committee that would hold deliberations on Balochistan also oversees America’s foreign assistance programmes. US legislators touching on a sensitive issue in Pakistan is seen as an important development when frozen Pakistan-US ties are just beginning to thaw.
Pakistan considers the issue of Balochistan an internal one, and some years ago had refused to allow the US to open a consulate in the province. Human Rights Adviser Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar refused to comment on the matter, saying the Foreign Office comments represented Pakistan’s stance.
The US State Department involved itself in the issue of Balochistan when its spokeswoman Victoria Nuland last month urged Pakistan to “really lead and conduct a dialogue that takes the Balochistan issue forward”. “The United States is deeply concerned about the ongoing violence in Balochistan, especially targeted killings, disappearances and other human rights abuses,” she had said. Interestingly, Nuland addressed the issue in a “twitter-briefing” that the department holds every Friday. “This was a very popular question on our feed, so we wanted to make sure that we answered it today,” said Nuland, who focused on the violence plaguing Balochistan instead of tackling political issues raised in most of the tweets. Pakistani officials say some foreign hands are involved in fanning the violence in the province along the Afghan border.