Implementing Balochistan Package with a slow speed

By Siddiq Baluch

Six months back, the Prime Minister had announced the Balochistan package with a clear intention to bring back normalcy and restore peace in Balochistan by taking specific administrative and political measures. If one goes into the details of the package, then he will find every thing in the package to speed up the reconciliation process, regain confidence of the people and bring back all those annoyed Baloch youth to normal life who had taken to hills for any reasons.

Primarily, the government of the day will have to win the heart and mind of the people and the Baloch youth in particular. For this, there was a public commitment that all the missing persons, including political activists, intellectuals and professionals will be traced and released on top priority basis. Unfortunately, none of them are traced and released presumably the establishment is resisting the decision and the government is completely helpless in front of the more powerful state functionaries. There are legitimate complaints from the political leaders that more people were listed missing than those traced and released. The government will have to find a solution to this humanitarian problem. It is conflict within the Pakistani Establishment. The outsiders or the political leaders are unable to play a role to prevail upon the hawks within the Government to trace and release all missing persons. It is the problem within the government or the establishment and it is the core issue of improving the image of the State and its machinery in the eyes of the international community.

The second issue is rehabilitation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were dislodged when General Pervez Musharraf launched his short sighted military operation against the Baloch people merely to satisfy his ego that the Baloch leaders had ignored him as a the supreme and undisputed ruler of Pakistan. There was no conflict between the Baloch people and the state institutions, particularly the Pakistan Army. It was the criminal conspiracy of the former military dictator to pitch the Pakistan Army against the Baloch people seeking their political, constitutional and economic rights within the framework of one Pakistan. He used the military contingents against the law abiding Baloch people residing in their historic homes for centuries. They had not attacked Rawalpindi or Islamabad, the residence of COAS. It was unfortunate that the conflict had been initiated and it is up to the government to find a solution to end it as early as possible keeping in view the precarious conditions in our security surroundings.

The Afghan civil war had already spilled over to the Pakistani territory long ago and it had engulfed the whole country. It was a mistake by the past military dictators who threw Pakistan into the Afghan civil war or in international intrigues and trouble. Thirdly, the government had already withdrawn the contingents of the Pakistan Army and its positions had been replaced by the Frontier Corps. Now the Frontier Corps should be brought back under the administrative control of the Political Government of Balochistan as announced by the Prime Minister in the Balochistan Package. Or in other word, all the security forces should be pulled back to peace time situation providing a chance to the political leadership to find a solution to the political and constitutional issues of Balochistan.

Balochistan is not a law and order issue as some naive people think. Baloch people had been demanding complete autonomy, greater power for their province in absence of their trust on the Federal government keeping the past experiences in the mind. Rightly, there is zero representation of Baloch people at the Centre and all the crises at the Central level had been diverted to Balochistan as no one was there to defend the legitimate Baloch interests in the Pakistani Federation. The highest office for the Baloch people in the Pakistani State is the Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan who had been denied a decent house in the Federal Capital during its tenure. If someone refers to Mir Zafarullah Jamali as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, it is reminded to all concerned that he was not a nominee of the Baloch people. He was a hand picked Prime Minister by the military dictator, to say the least.

The real issues are constitutional, political and economic and those were addressed in the Balochistan package which had not been implemented so far. There are least chances that the Balochistan package of the present PPP Government will ever be implemented in near future. Thus it is not a good news for Pakistan and its national integrity to keep Baloch people dissatisfied for the past six decades. The use of brute force during the five military operations did not work and it will not work in future also, to say the least. There is no military solution to the Balochistan problem. It is a constitutional and political issue and it should be dealt with politically and within the constitutional framework of Pakistan.

(The write is a veteran Quetta-based journalist with five-decade journalistic experience of covering Balochistan. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Daily Balochistan Express and Daily Azadi (Urdu), Quetta: dailyazadi@gmail.com. To read previous articles by the same writer, click here)