Opening a few doors in Balochistan

By Kamila Hyat
There is nothing especially surprising about the reaction of Baloch nationalists to the government’s package for the province. It would indeed have been odd if the response had been different. There has, after all, been a long breakdown in trust. Though the rather inane comments from some of the younger nationalists say nothing for the intellectual underpinnings of the Baloch struggle, the reaction to the package has been, more or less, unanimous. Veteran leaders such as Ataullah Mengal and Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch have been almost equally scathing in their rejection of the proposals laid down, and the announcement of the package has been followed by emotional outbursts on television from a number of Baloch.

This was to be expected. The distance between the cities, towns and villages of Balochistan and Islamabad has grown so much that new roads will need to be built to link them. Those that existed lie broken and in a state of terrible disrepair. The Musharraf years, with the military moving in to carry out a brutal operation in parts of the province inflicted terrible damage. The stories of persons picked up by agencies, tortured and then, in some cases, released, are told across Balochistan. Some of the victims, like the poet and writer Dr Hanif Sharif, 29, taken away from a restaurant in Turbat in April 2006 and freed a year later, have never fully recovered from their ordeal. Their names are rarely heard outside Balochistan or beyond the YouTube videos where they appear. But in Balochistan such people are heroes.

The Balochi-language films that have proved most successful in recent years – defying the usual patterns of popular viewing in a country where entertainment with serious themes is notoriously hard to sell – tell the tales of Baloch heroes who have gone “missing.” One, Zindan (Prison), is said to be based on true-life events in the province and is around the story of two young friends active in the Baloch struggle. In this film, and others, the villains include the military and Punjabis. This is not an enviable situation, but it is the hard reality of Balochistan.

There is, inevitably, anger in some quarters over the burning of the Pakistani flag in Balochistan or the refusal some months ago at some schools to sing the national anthem at morning assembly. The gunning down of persons from other provinces is worse still. The deaths are tragic and can never be justified. But the ugly mood in the province which has led to them can change only through consistent effort to draw back its people and offer them a place within the federation of Pakistan.

The package for Balochistan is indeed a first step on this road. It at least opens up discussion on the issues of the province, in parliament and at other forums. This means that views from Balochistan are being heard in the mainstream media and, as such, introduced to people who have long remained largely oblivious to the province.

An extraordinary number, especially in the majority province, have been willing to accept, without much question, the Musharraf regime’s description of Baloch nationalists as “miscreants.” The fact that few Punjabis have ever met Baloch countrymen adds to this mental – and physical – isolation. The first encounters between students from various provinces at institutions of higher learning in Lahore, and no doubt in other major cities, are indeed said to leave those on either side bewildered and sometimes aghast, as though they had come across someone from another planet or a different time zone. It is, though, a matter of some encouragement that in many, indeed most, cases lasting friendships have evolved. There is much to be said for person-to-person contact. We need more of it.

The involvement of mainstream political players in the dialogue on Balochistan is also important. The unlikely figure of Mian Nawaz Sharif is being mentioned as a possible mediator in the matter. It would be good to know what ideas his party, centred in Punjab, comes up with. Some of those who had gone “missing” in Balochistan have reportedly been freed within days of the announcement of the Balochistan package. It is hoped others will follow them home.

The prime minister also says he is in touch with Baloch leaders in exile. If this is indeed correct, it is an encouraging sign of a readiness to open up new doors, and by doing so, find new passages that can lead towards greater accommodation and the building of consensus which, within any federation, is the key to survival. The failure to develop this consensus is indeed a key reason for the crisis of integration that Pakistan faces today.

Many more steps, of course, need to be taken, and it can be argued that the package itself is flawed. In announcing 5,000 more jobs for Balochistan, the prime minister, for instance, has failed to acknowledge that even the existing quota for the province has never been met. The reason needs to be examined in some depth. Otherwise there will always lurk the suspicion that the government package is intended as little more than a political gesture or a measure intended to distract attention from the mess over the NRO, as some Baloch leaders have alleged.

Sincerity still needs to be proven and, given the animosities that exist, this will take time. The discussion in parliament and the response from government benches to what will be a heated debate, with some tough statements from Baloch leaders, will to some extent at least signal how far the good intentions laid down in the package go.

There is still time to save Balochistan. Comparisons have been made with the situation that prevailed in East Pakistan in the 1960s. There are indeed some parallels. But, then, there also other factors that work in favour of Pakistan. Geographical proximity is not an issue as it was in the case of the country’s Eastern Wing. The small size of the Baloch population also makes its struggle less potent. But unless genuine intent to bring about a reconciliation with the people of Balochistan is demonstrated, these factors will become insignificant and the simmering unrest we see now in the province will boil over as a volcano capable of inflicting a great deal of damage. Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com (The News International, Karachi)