Tackling Balochistan
Monday, May 11, 2009
The News International, Pakistan
Monday, May 11, 2009
The prime minister is said to have given directions for a constitutional package to be worked out which can address the sense of deprivation of the people of Balochistan. It is not yet clear what the package will consist of, but it will need to incorporate concerns about financial resources available to the province and the degree of autonomy it enjoys. The question will be whether the package can undo the damage inflicted by the harsh comments made a few weeks ago by the interior adviser who, with astonishing insensitivity, slammed Baloch nationalists. Sometimes one wonders if those who make up the government sit together and determine policy, before making statements. Too often it seems individuals act on their own initiative and that the Islamabad setup as a whole lacks a clear-cut line of collective action.
In a situation such as that which prevails in Balochistan, such a policy can cause grave harm. The danger is that we are fast running out of time in the province. Feelings of anger and rage grow and are now openly reflected in interviews and statements made by nationalist leaders. The province is poised on the edge of a razor blade, and the situation is all the more precarious given that the Taliban too seem to be eyeing it as a possible base. There can then, in this situation, be no sense at all in targeting the forces that can offer a defence to them and prevent them gaining ground in a province where secular politics still holds a place and many adhere to liberal political ideas that seem to have vanished from other parts of the country. Early in his tenure, and on several occasions since then, President Asif Ali Zardari spoke of the beginning of a reconciliation process in Balochistan. The constitutional package now being planned is presumably a part of the same policy. There is a need to take it decisively forward, while there is still time to hold back the mounting anger threatening to sweep over the province and overwhelm the federation.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The prime minister is said to have given directions for a constitutional package to be worked out which can address the sense of deprivation of the people of Balochistan. It is not yet clear what the package will consist of, but it will need to incorporate concerns about financial resources available to the province and the degree of autonomy it enjoys. The question will be whether the package can undo the damage inflicted by the harsh comments made a few weeks ago by the interior adviser who, with astonishing insensitivity, slammed Baloch nationalists. Sometimes one wonders if those who make up the government sit together and determine policy, before making statements. Too often it seems individuals act on their own initiative and that the Islamabad setup as a whole lacks a clear-cut line of collective action.
In a situation such as that which prevails in Balochistan, such a policy can cause grave harm. The danger is that we are fast running out of time in the province. Feelings of anger and rage grow and are now openly reflected in interviews and statements made by nationalist leaders. The province is poised on the edge of a razor blade, and the situation is all the more precarious given that the Taliban too seem to be eyeing it as a possible base. There can then, in this situation, be no sense at all in targeting the forces that can offer a defence to them and prevent them gaining ground in a province where secular politics still holds a place and many adhere to liberal political ideas that seem to have vanished from other parts of the country. Early in his tenure, and on several occasions since then, President Asif Ali Zardari spoke of the beginning of a reconciliation process in Balochistan. The constitutional package now being planned is presumably a part of the same policy. There is a need to take it decisively forward, while there is still time to hold back the mounting anger threatening to sweep over the province and overwhelm the federation.
Labels: Baluchistan, Pakistan, Provincial Autonomy, Taliban, Terrorism
posted @ 5:31 PM,
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