On engaging the Baloch
You can’t neatly slot response to former Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Akhtar Mengal’s six points in the usual demarcations that cut across the Pakistani poli-sphere. He has met with Nawaz Sharif, who, granted, was only formerly the darling of the establishment. But he has also met with Imran Khan, who, depending on who you ask, is the current blue-eyed boy of the deep state. The MQM, which is at pains to paint itself as a party for all “smaller nations”, is trying to meet him but the Nawab has yet to oblige. The ANP, with a sense of history, has appreciated his engagement; they were the same party once, weren’t they? And the PPP finds itself in the odd position of trying to play apologist for the military.
The interior minister categorically rejected the notion that there was a military operation going on in the province, around which the six points were centered. No minor disagreement, this. This is no minor difference of opinion on the choice of this word or that. No, this is a basic, fundamental difference. The interior minister even went on to remind Mengal that it was the PPP government that had released him from incarceration. To this, the former CM had an interesting quip: back in the NAP days, when the PPP outlawed his party and had jailed his father, Nawab Attaullah Mengal, Nawab Ghaus Bux Bizenjo, Wali Khan, Habib Jalib and other party leaders, it was the Zia regime that set them all free; by that logic, should he pay homage to the dead dictator’s grave every time he’s in the federal capital?
The military PR machine has also gotten into action. Lies and what not. The ISPR had also had to deny a report in a British paper implying that the ISI was behind the smear campaign against the foreign minister in response to her support for an international observers group on Balochistan. Responsible for some wrongdoing in Balochistan? Plausible. But responsible even for smear campaigns against female politicians? The plausibility should spur the agency into some introspection.
At the end of the day, Mengal’s attempt at reproachment seems refreshing, even to those who are not pleasantly disposed towards him, because it gives a focal point of concentration regarding The Other in Balochistan. Someone to negotiate with. What if he is not effective to begin with? Or, for that matter, what if even Brahmdagh, Hyrbyair, Balaach and the likes have also been left behind by the agents of social change and the new side to be reckoned with are the shadowy, middle-class ideologues we keep hearing about? What if they are many in number and are far more mercurial than the traditional anti-establishment sardars? The establishment has no one but itself to blame.
