The truth about Balochistan

But the agencies, as usual, still deny it

Ensuring a constitutional solution of the Balochistan issue, as recommended by Gen Kayani, requires a number of confidence building measures (CBMs) followed by guarantees from the highest military quarters that this time there would be no manipulation by the agencies in the elections. There is little hope the establishment would agree to the CBMs easily. The unrest and killings in Balochistan are thus bound to continue. Whatever possibility of a constitutional solution exists now—and the six points by Akhtar Mengal indicate that it is there—is likely to evaporate in days to come. Musharraf still represents the dominant thinking in the army. On Monday he claimed that Balochistan was not East Pakistan implying that the tactics that have led to the present situation in the province should be continued. The military thinking ignores that determined populations driven by a desperate sense of injustice and persecution have brought to their knees some of the most powerful armies. The plight of the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan is just one of several examples.

The illegal and unconstitutional steps taken prior to February 2008 created a situation in Balochistan marked by gross human rights violations. Security agencies engineered the elections in the province on Musharraf’s direction. This led to the rise and proliferation of armed factions seeking the province’s separation from Pakistan. The present rulers in Balochistan that the agencies had helped to get elected were thoroughly incompetent to deal with the aftereffects of Akbar Bugti’s killing. The continuation of attacks on government property and killing of innocent citizens could have been brought to an end through talks leading to the conviction of those responsible for Bugti’s elimination. What followed instead was a highly repressive response to the insurrection which further worsened the situation. Hundreds, according to the nationalists thousands, were picked up in defiance of law and constitutional guarantees, scores were tortured and their dead bodies dumped on streets. People started making comparisons between Balochistan on the one hand and Kashmir and Palestine on the other vis a vis atrocities and gross human rights violations by state actors. The army and the agencies however continue to be in a state of denial.

Keen to continue to rule and return to power after the next elections, the PPP government does not want to be seen on the wrong side of the establishment. Instead of supporting the Supreme Court in its efforts for the recovery of the missing persons, the government has decided to side with the agencies. The statement presented before the SC on behalf of the federal government corroborates the establishment’s stand that the agencies are not involved in enforced disappearances. The government also maintains, against facts, that there is a marked decrease in the phenomenon. The commission on missing persons, headed by Justice (rtd) Javed Iqbal, disclosed on Tuesday that 80 more cases of disappearance had been reported to it during the past three months. Similarly, there is no end to the killings, the latest being that of a journalist in Khuzdar by a death squad reportedly working for the agencies.

Highly responsible and patriotic individuals, widely respected civil rights bodies and the highest court in the country have rejected the denials by the agencies as utterly false. During the nine-month long hearing by the SC of the cases of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, the claim of innocence by the agencies has been again and again exposed and rejected. Officials of the agencies involved in disappearances were named by the court and threatened with action including arrest. All persuasion by the apex court to hand over the missing persons however failed. More than half a dozen in-depth reports by the Human Right Commission of Pakistan contradict the claims of innocence made by the security agencies. Two national conferences held in Islamabad and Quetta by the Supreme Court Bar Association, the prime professional body of the lawyers community, have also underlined that the excesses were being committed by the security agencies. Calling the disappearances a heinous crime, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) has called for their discontinuance.

Of the six points presented by Sardar Akhtar Mengal, five require pre-election CBMs. What the establishment fails to understand is that Mengal and the moderate nationalists stand between the federation and the abyss. This explains the all-out opposition to Mengal’s visit and his six points by the extremists who would settle at nothing short of an independent Balochistan. They have unanimously charged Mengal with sellout. Akhtar Mengal, along with other nationalist parties still supporting a genuine federation, is in a position to ensure a constitutional resolution to the issue of Balochistan provided the CBMs are undertaken and elections are not manipulated by the agencies as before.

The Baloch nationalists still willing to contest the elections are putting themselves in great danger. The separatists who are deadly opposed to any Baloch politician taking part in polls are likely to treat them as a prime target. It is in national interest to bolster the pro-federation Baloch parties. This can be done if the establishment removes its blinkers, acknowledges the reality and implements the six points. This would mean putting an ending to the forced disappearances, suspension of the operations undertaken by the FC, producing all accused of anti-state activities in the courts, calling off the death squads referred to by the SC at the last hearing, punishing those responsible for torture and extra judicial killing, and rehabilitation of thousands of displaced Baloch presently living in appalling condition. Followed by free and fair elections this would pave way for the constitutional solution of the Baloch problem. Not a big price for keeping the federation intact.

What does one do in a situation when the establishment buries its head in the sand while it suits the government to do the same?

The only way left is for the major opposition parties to join hands and jointly pressurize the government to agree to the CBMs and the establishment to reign in the security agencies. It appears however that Balochistan stands low in the list of the opposition parties’ priorities, presumably because it is population wise the smallest province of the country.

Mian Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have both spoken at the Islamabad national conference on Balochistan called by the SCBA. They have to take lead now to jointly call a conference on Balochistan to formulate an action program. Talk shows alone have never won political battles. If the two parties become active, the rest of the opposition parties and the Baloch nationalist parties are bound to join them. Together the combination of forces can bell the cat.

The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.