Pakistan in Media

Some Baloch nationalists had delivered themselves of a rejectionist message even before the Balochistan package was presented in a joint session of parliament the other day. The rest have now joined the chorus. In case anyone is jumping to any conclusions, it needs to be stressed that negative or indifferent reactions to the package are not confined to those from the province. The main opposition party, the PML-N, sat stoically throughout the presentation, clarifying later that it considered the package only a set of proposals and would respond when debate gets under way at another joint session after Eid. Other parties too have reacted rather less than enthusiastically. The only positive sounds have come, unsurprisingly, from the government, from President Asif Ali Zardari downwards. But is this divide unexpected? If not, why not?

The News International, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Another Baloch nationalist leader has died mysteriously. Mureed Bugti, a close aide of Brahamdagh Bugti and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the fiercely nationalist Baloch Republican Party, was killed, along with his host, at a village near Hala in Sindh. No obvious motive has emerged. In much of the mainstream press, the news made only a minor splash. In many Balochi language newspapers and on websites run by nationalist groups – most of them accessible only through proxy servers – the death of the 48-year-old leader is headline material. It is being linked to the gory murder of three nationalist leaders earlier this year or to the killing of Balaach Marri sometime before that. Where then are we headed in Balochistan? It is hard to say what the facts behind each of these deaths are. Many different versions have surfaced. But in the situation that prevails today in the federation's largest province, perceptions are in many ways more significant than the truth. And the perception of many, perhaps most, of the Baloch people is that state forces are involved in the murders. This fits in with the notion that the centre is an enemy of Balochistan and its people and has never dealt with them justly.
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Dawn, Pakistan
Friday, 05 Jun, 2009

BALOCHISTAN’S core problems stem from underdevelopment and denial of the province’s rights over its own resources. For decades it has seen its gas and precious metal deposits exploited by the centre with little or no benefit accruing to the people of Balochistan. Pakistan’s biggest province in terms of size should, by rights, also be the richest given its natural bounty. Yet Balochistan is the most backward region in the country. Little surprise then that its people have found allure over the decades in the message of nationalists and secessionists. And any sign of Baloch dissent has been countered with brute force by the centre, the most recent example being the military operation unleashed by Gen Musharraf.

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Editorial, Dawn, Pakistan
Saturday, 23 May, 2009

PROMISES abound when it comes to addressing the problems faced by Balochistan. This time round we have been told that an all-parties conference will be called “within days”. At least that is what the prime minister promised on Wednesday, adding that his administration has not forgotten the Balochistan issue. The public perception in this regard, he stressed, is incorrect. Doubting Mr Gilani’s intentions is not the point here, for he is widely seen as a sincere man even if lacking the authority a prime minister ought to wield in a parliamentary system. But words alone cannot dispel the impression that Balochistan, for whatever reason, does not rank high on the government’s agenda. Preoccupation with the Malakand operation cannot be an excuse because that battle is only a few weeks old while the government has been in office for well over a year. In a welcome move in February last year, the PPP leadership offered a public apology for atrocities committed against the people of Balochistan. It was also stated — in March 2008 — that the concurrent legislative list would be abolished within a year to give the provinces greater control over their resources. Massive uplift ‘packages’ were announced for Balochistan, the most underdeveloped province in the country. All these pledges, however, have resulted in little movement on the ground.

It is hoped that the APC promised by the prime minister will yield more than just more talk. To be at all meaningful it must include representatives of the Baloch nationalist parties who boycotted last year’s elections, for a congregation of the like-minded rarely serves any constructive purpose. Voices of dissent need to be heard and accommodated if the desired goal is a lasting solution to Balochistan’s backwardness. In keeping with the norms of parliamentary democracy, the APC’s recommendations should then be taken up in the provincial and national legislatures. Only consensus, not diktat, can deliver results. Only then will any ‘Balochistan package’ be truly legitimate.

Balochistan is poor when it should be rich. It has a relatively small population and vast reserves of fossil fuels and precious metals such as gold and copper. The province has been exploited ruthlessly, if not pillaged, by the centre. It has been on the receiving end of brutal military crackdowns, torture and forced ‘disappearances’. The anger felt by the Baloch is understandable, as is their sense of alienation from the centre. Those who take up arms in the fight against injustice, or seek a separate homeland, will continue to find adherents to their cause if the centre fails to invest in Balochistan and award it control over its riches. Conversely, the insurgents will find few takers when there are enough schools, hospitals and job opportunities in the province.

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Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Relatives of the hundreds of persons still missing in the country have stepped up their campaign of protests to draw attention to the issue. Meanwhile, former president Pervez Musharraf's curious comment as to how these persons were in fact not missing at all but had gone off on their own to wage 'jihad' has been termed absurd by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The ex-president's explanation does not cater for the failure of the 'disappeared' to communicate with families, something they would surely not neglect to do if they had gone away voluntarily, or for the fact that the vast majority of the missing are linked to Baloch nationalist groups who oppose religious extremism.

The restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is of course the factor giving new zeal to groups representing the relatives of the missing. The CJ had, before his November 2007 suspension, observed most of these persons were in the hands of agencies. But the case is one that needs also to be taken heed of as an example of state abuse and the impact this has on citizens. Indeed in Balochistan, the issue of missing people gives rise to a great deal of the anger. For this reason the government needs also to step in, as its leaders had indeed promised they would do, and help unravel the mystery of the persons who vanished at various points in time. For families, the truth, no matter how hard it may be, would be easier to face than the constant uncertainty they today live with and which has compelled them once more to come onto the streets in the hope that their voice will finally be heard and an end put to their long ordeal.

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A proposal is on to make the port city of Gwadar on the Makran Coast Balochistan's winter capital. The plan could bring big economic gains for the area, currently one of the least developed in Pakistan, and for the province as a whole. For these reasons the plan should be encouraged. Using two centres as administrative capitals is after all not unique, and was the established practice in colonial times when the entire administrative apparatus shifted with the first heat-laden winds of summer from New Delhi to Simla. The governments in Punjab and other regions made a similar shift. Balochistan at present badly needs innovative plans for development. In this context it is worth noting that one of the ideas that went down well during President Zardari's recent visit to the US was a suggestion from an official making up the Pakistan team for a road working its way from the Balochistan coast to Afghanistan and beyond as a means to promote trade and uplift. US officials are said to see the suggestion as a rare concrete plan from Pakistan on how to better the plight of its people, rather than the waffling which seems to have dominated far too many of the meetings

Improving the lot of the people of Balochistan is of course especially significant. Indeed there is a vital need to do so in order to strengthen our fragile federation. We must therefore hope that the Gwadar plan goes through and that other, innovative measures can be put in place to achieve the same for other parts of the country badly in need of development

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.