Moderate Bridges Continue to cave in

Balochistan Situationer

Saeed Minhas

If bridges of peace and reconciliation held together by moderate voices like ex-senator
and secretary general of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) Habib Jalib Baloch
continues to cave in to various competing or planted ‘ideological’ brigades operating in
Balochistan, then it certainly defies all the laurels sung by our political and uniformed
establishment.
These sentiments were aired by a number of nationalist moderates interviewed by this
scribe in the past couple of days and all of them with unanimity want to talk on condition
of anonymity for fear of their lives. It reminds me of the famous saying by Classical
Guitarist of Scottish origin David Russell who once said: “The hardest thing in life is to
know which bridge to cross and which to burn” because according to many Baloch
leaders hailing from across the political divide, current situation is synonymous to “blind
leading the blind”.
Instead of playing the blame-game and pointing fingers in all directions, they claim that
all the major political parties need to not only revisit their respective party positions but
arrange a roundtable national conference on the issue. They also want federal government
to take serious stock of the situation because the tunnel vision of current political rulers is
leading towards more polarization and pessimism, then anything else. A disconnect
between the uniformed and civilian leadership is something which you just cannot ignore
once you come across both sides. Instead of taking each other on board, they said that
both the sides are working on their agendas to relay a message to the rest of Pakistan that
they are on their way to achieve their targets.
Uniformed officers, while admitting the gravity of the situation, believes in mixing and
matching three Ds; i.e development, deterrence and where necessary complete
destruction of militants to achieve their targets of securing the strategically important
front of Pakistan. In comparison to three Ds of the strategic custodians of our frontiers,
provincial government seems to be spending too much energy on painting a rosy picture
and ensuring that its political opponents remain in check.
A province, considered by many as the ticking time bomb since the killing of Nawab
Akbar Bugti during Gen. Musharraf days in power--about two years back--Balochistan
has so far seen nothing but more turbulence, target killing and rise of acrimony amongst
growing platoons of youngsters. A public apology from Balochs by President Asif
Zardari and announcement of a scheme to mitigate some of the injustices done to Balochs
over the years by various civilian and military rulers is considered by many nationalists
as well as by projected militant groups just another cover up.
In a recent tour to the area shows that military certainly has some projects to show that
how they have donated their one-day salary for the development of the area and how they
are managing the monies emanating from coalmines of Chamalang. But again in contrast
political government’s budget documents reveal that they have allocated some specific
millions and then again some unspecific millions (altogether Rs. 12.5 billion) to cater to
the growing needs of levies, constabularies and other forces to ensure the fast eluding
safety. Other than that, the white paper of the Balochistan government shows a
comparison of poverty, illiteracy, youth, per capita income and injustices done during the
previous regimes with an end-note that the provincial government is having an annual
deficit of over seven billion rupees despite getting the record Rs 112 billion from
divisible pool, foreign assistance and project loans.
Seen from the social scientists point of view reasons are simple; looming poverty,
joblessness, lack of development, dictatorially run political establishments and last but
not the least the recurring use of force to hush up all these public demands need urgent
and immediate attention, claimed few remaining and willing-to-talk academicians in the
province.
This sense of deprivation, they argued, has resulted in a void similar to the one we all had
seen in northwest frontier regions. If Taliban took it upon themselves to fill these gaping
holes in socio-economic justice there, then enraged extremist youth have sprung up to
challenge the fragile houses of political elite in Balochistan, they added.
Our intelligent officers based on their years of experience in dealing with these kinds of
situations, meanwhile, leave no stone unturned to make us believe that this uprising in
Balochistan is just a storm in the cup of tea and they are well in control of the situation,
barring the fact that politicians and judiciary is not helping them otherwise crushing these
few thousand vigilantes with an iron-fist is matter of few months if not days.
Some of the entrenched ‘intelligent men in uniforms’ who have also been part of the
Bangladesh experiment as well as the recent anti-terrorism campaigns in north western
regions, rubbish these kind of ‘void theories’ and believe that if corrupt politicians and
incompetent judiciary does not fall in their way they can turn entire Balochistan as
peaceful as the cantonments.
Since most of the Balochs or local Pashtuns are not allowed to enter the cantonments,
therefore, they have little or no experience of what kind of safety and peace they are
referring to but these Balochs do agree with the Khakis and intel-people that corrupt
political governments and lackluster judiciary has brought them to the brink of disaster.
They, however, do not want to buy the theory that entire Balochistan be turned into a
Cantonment; rather all they asked for is to deliver on promises of bringing heaven on
earth for miserable Balochs.
If writ of Balochistan government is being established around provincial Opposition
Leader Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind in the name of respecting the judiciary’s verdict on a
family dispute than writ of the state is well on display through huge cantonments or
isolated pockets surrounded by all sorts of constabulary including Frontier, Balochistan
and local levies, claimed some senior journos during one such exchange. If
announcement after announcement of development packages keep flowing from
Islamabad with next to none benefits for the locals, then sense of deprivation continues to
multiply and attract more youngsters to violence.
After receiving lots of calls from the concerned youngsters and political moderates from
the troubled lands of Balochistan, I was compelled to convey all these sentiments and
conspiracy theories making rounds after the assassination of two former chairmen of
Balochistan Student Organisation (BSO) within the span of just four days; i.e. Habib
Jalib Baloch and Mir Maula Baksh Dashti.
Clouds of doubts and mistrust are likely to grow thicker and darker, claimed many
nationalists who have always stood for political dialogue and not for military action to
sort out the mess in the troubled lands of Balochistan. To curb these feelings, they believe
that government should silence the guns and start the dialogue by involving all the stake-
holders. Denoting the urgency, they requested, “the sooner the better.”