Angry Baloch leadership different from Taliban: Magsi

Expressing dissatisfaction over the government’s role in redressing the issues confronting the people of Balochistan, PPP Senator Saifullah Magsi on Thursday demanded open negotiations with the angry Baloch leadership, saying it was different from the Taliban.
In an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today, he said strong reaction on Malala Yousafzai’s incident reflected a decrease in Taliban’s popularity with the public. Magsi said he was concerned with the current law and order in Balochistan and was not satisfied with the role of the government regarding the issue.
“The government should take the issue more seriously and should not restrict it to slogans and staging walkouts from the Senate and the National Assembly,” he said.
Magsi said the Balochistan issue was currently the hottest issue in the country, as “the voice of Baloch is being raised in the National Assembly, and even the Supreme Court has passed a short order regarding it”, adding that the provincial government had failed resulting in serious consequences.
He told Pakistan Today that in its recent short order, the Supreme Court had mentioned that Balochistan was facing operational issues as intelligence agencies and the Frontier Constabulary (FC) were not following anyone’s directives and were introducing their own decisions. He said “sometimes they leave their own high command unaware”.
Magsi seconded the recommendations by the Supreme Court, adding that the missing persons should be handed over to the Crimes Investigation Department, normal FIRs should not be lodged for such cases, and the a department should be set up to probe the cases in a justified and fair manner.
“If someone from the FC or the ISI is behind such enforced disappearances, that too without any government mandate, then they should be taken to task.” Magsi said such incidents would keep cropping up unless these measures were adopted.
He said the Baloch did not have reservations against the armed forces but were concerned about the FC “because the army does not have their presence on roads like the FC does”.
“If some special laws are required to resolve these political and administrative issues of Balochistan then I believe it is the responsibility of parliament to table such special laws, to build consensus and to implement them.”
Commenting over the growing extremism in the country, the PPP senator said as reflected by the Malala incident, “the government is not dealing with ordinary or normal people here but brutal terrorists”, adding that such elements should be dealt with as terrorists and should be given a hard time.
To another query, Magsi said a few people propagated that extremists and Taliban were getting popular among the general public which he said was an incorrect. “Their popularity is just because of their appearances on TV channels”.
He asked if such elements were popular how had such a massive reaction emerged after the Malala incident? “It is not their popularity… however, I can say that they are smart and organised”.
“Our government and law enforcement agencies need to hit them where it hurts, otherwise it would lose their writ and ground, as it’s the basic principle of war. I think things are beyond negotiations now and we should seriously take action against them.”
To a question regarding the Balochistan issue, he said the government had to resolve the issues with consensus, following which a dialogue process should be established with those (the angry Baloch leadership) who are sitting abroad as they are also Pakistani, despite claiming otherwise.
Differentiating between Baloch separatists from the Taliban, Magsi said the Taliban did not recognise Pakistan as it is now. “They only recognise a Pakistan which is inline with their own theories and concepts, so they do not recognise the state. We still inked peace deals with them but they have remained fruitless,” he said, adding on the other hand the Baloch leadership was a political leadership so they should be brought to the table.
About sectarian killings in Balochistan, Magsi demanded the government bring the perpetrators to court.