This is in apropos of a news item “US hearing termed ill-advised” (Febuary 11) that has been termed as most bizarre and interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs. It is quite surprising that on the one side, US President Obama is trying vigorously to reduce tensions that have bedevilled US-Pakistan relations for more than a year, whereas on the other side, the US legislators have staged an unusual US congressional hearing on human rights abuses in Balochistan. Is this not a paradoxical US policy?
By doing so, US is trying to pressurise Pakistan to soften its stance over NATO air attacks on Salala check post along with its decision on NATO’s supply lines to Afghanistan and secondly highlighting Balochistan as a stronghold of Taliban (allegedly Quetta Shura) close to a US war theatre.
Since long, Baloch diaspora in United States has been playing a negative role against Pakistan. However, with the sneaking of some renegade Baloch tribal chieftains into European countries, the foreign-based Baloch organisations of Pakistani origin intensified their anti-Pakistan rhetoric by advocating the so-called Balochi cause.
The mainline associations are American Friends of Balochistan (AFB), London-based Greater Balochistan National Conference (GBNC), Scandinavian-based Baloch outfits, etc. They highlight the so-called miseries of Baloch to the Senators, Congressmen as well as Indian cartels associated with media in the US.
The second purpose of these outfits was to keep Pakistan under pressure by demanding independence and also to raise the issue at international level. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher – a Baloch nationalist supporter who organised and chaired the congressional hearing on Balochistan, assured the Americans that the Baloch are natural US allies, and would like to share the Gwadar port with the United States, would not allow the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline through their lands and would fight the Taliban as well. All these unsavoury developments are due to widening trust deficit between the two allies fighting a joint war on terror.
It is very disheartening to note that these foreign based organisations patronised by exiled Baloch chieftains are discussing their inter-province disputes and feuds to a foreign country. These anti-Pakistan alliances working in foreign countries are distorting the positive and favourable national image at the international level.
The democratically-driven Pakistan is more than capable of protecting fundamental rights and freedoms in all parts of Pakistan, including Balochistan. With the placement of independent judiciary, an enlightened civil society coupled with a vigorous media, redress of grievances – be it political or economic, can be befittingly addressed to satisfaction.
RAHEELA NAUREEN
Islamabad
