The Baloch Hal Editorial

By Malik Siraj Akbar

The Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad) took out a mammoth protest rally in Quetta city on Tuesday to protest over the illegal occupation of the Government Degree College in Quetta by the Frontier Corps (FC). The protest rally, led by BSO Shal (Quetta) zone, Shahzaib Baloch, was attended by a large number of male and female students-cum-political activists. They started their march from Quetta Press Club and stopped in front of the Degree College on Sariab Road for a demonstration.

Of course, the protestors may have had their political agenda to implement while taking out such a grand protest rally in Quetta. However, the students had a point to make. The protest rally brought in public attention a neglected grave issue that entails the occupation of a key college in Quetta by the Frontier Corps (FC). This matter should have been raised by the media, students and teachers associations much earlier to draw the attention of the Balochistan government towards another front where the FC is acting in an uncivilized manner.

The Government Degree College Quetta, which is the learning place for most of the lower middle class students from Quetta and some other neighboring districts, has been completely closed for the last many months. The sole odd explanation given for the closure of this premier educational institution is the forceful control of armed FC men over the college. The FC does not give any explanation for its forceful occupation of a college because FC in Balochistan, unfortunately, is not answerable to anyone. Starting from a pedestrian to the Chief Minister of Balochistan, everyone in the country’s largest but most oppressed province has one thing to say about the FC: “We do not know who controls this rogue force.”

Not only the college but also the hostel at the Degree College is in the control of the FC. Ironically, students coming from remote parts of Balochistan are compelled to pay exorbitant rents for lodging in different hotels, flats and guest houses in Quetta to prepare for examination. While deserving students of Balochistan (say the proverbial “sons of the soil”) have the doors of college shut and the gates of the hostel fully sealed for them, alien troopers coming from the North Western Frontier Province and Punjab rascally dwell on the campuses by dint of force. This is the worst thing that could happen to the education of Balochistan. This is also the highest level of arrogance exhibited by the security forces towards a province that lags behind in the domain of education. Where is democracy?

Basically, it was not the sole responsibility of the students to hold a protest against the forceful occupation of the Government Degree College by the Frontier Corps. The entire civil society, parents of the students, members of the Balochistan government should have joined hands to demand the reopening of the college and the hostel.

In the past, a similar situation persisted at the University of Balochistan for several months. With the university and the hostel in control of the FC, student faced daunting problems in the continuity of their education. Those who came from remote districts like Turbat and Gwadar had to encounter nightmarish problems in terms of finding accommodation in the wake of closure of the hostels. There is indeed no justification for deployment of security forces inside the colleges and universities of Balochistan under current normal circumstances.

The response of the Balochistan government towards such uncalled for attitude of the Frontier Corps towards the educational institutions has been disappointing. The provincial government has remained indifferent to such an extent towards this issue as if it had nothing to lose due to disturbance caused in the academic activities of the young students of Balochistan. Political situation aside, the educational institutions of Balochistan must receive uninterrupted education. When the security forces enter different educational institutions without any reasons or declared official justifications merely to find a ‘suitable place to stay’, this can only be described as a deliberate attempt to deny higher education to the youth of Balochistan.

We have opposed the deployment of the FC and all other paramilitary forces on the university campuses even during all times because major institutions already have their own police force to ensure the safety of the staff and students there. In addition, places of higher learning cannot thrive under the shadow of guns, tanks and highhandedness of the security forces. Colleges and universities are the places where students must be encouraged to think independently. They should be allowed to enter into rational arguments and do objective analysis of various matters. They should not be dictated to follow a certain line of learning at this crucial stage of their academic lives.

Many people, including the Governor of Balochistan and the Chief Minister, may have ideological differences with the stance of the BSO-Azad. Yet, they should admire the courage of these young men and women who stood up against the forceful occupation of Degree College by the FC for so many months. They should take notice of this serious issue and give (with the help of the federal government, of course) immediate instructions to the FC to vacate all educational institutions of Balochistan wherever it has self-deployed itself. Educational institutions look good when ruled by (wo)men with brain not boots.

The Baloch Hal is the first online English newspaper of Balochistan)

Sunday, January 31, 2010
The government of Pervez Musharraf not only created an IDP (internally displaced persons) crisis in Balochistan, it also very dexterously kept the whole country in oblivion about it. Limited and restricted information was leaked about the fate of around 100,000 Baloch IDPs who were driven out of their homes during the military operation carried out in Marri and Bugti tribal areas. The dictator-sponsored humanitarian catastrophe was deplorable but officially denying accesses to national and international humanitarian groups to grapple with the IDP crisis in Balochistan was criminal.

The first batch of IDPs from Dera Bugti reached the neighbouring districts of Naseerabad and Jaffarabad soon after the attack by paramilitary forces on the fort of Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti on March 17, 2005. An incident billed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) as “extra judicial killing of non-combatants”, the March 17 assault killed 43 people, including 19 men and three women from the minority Hindu community. More people abandoned their homes as the military operation escalated in the Marri and Bugti tribal areas until it reached its culmination with the killing of Nawab Bugti on August 26, 2006.

The government refuted media statements about the launching of a military operation in the oil-and-gas-rich region. It also brushed aside the impression that a humanitarian disaster was in the offing after the displacement of hundreds of families. Lies about the grave situation of Baloch IDPs were debunked only after an internal assessment report prepared by the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was leaked in July-August 2006 to the media. According to this report, the displaced persons, mostly women (26,000) and children (33,000) were living in makeshift camps without adequate shelter in Jaffarabad, Naseerabad, Quetta, Sibi and Bolan districts. The UNICEF report said that 28 percent of five-year-old children were acutely malnourished, and more than 6.0 percent were in a state of “severe acute malnourishment”, with their survival dependent on receiving immediate medical attention. Over 80 percent of deaths among those surveyed were among children under five.

The UNICEF report came as an indictment to the Musharraf regime and gave currency to Baloch nationalists’ repeated stance that the military operation had caused a dire IDP crisis in the province that needed to be urgently tackled. On the other hand, the military junta was so incensed that not only did it ask the UNICEF chief to leave the country but also put pressure on UN officials to back out from the report they had prepared about Baloch IDPs.

For instance, investigative journalist Ziad Zafar, while writing in Newsline in June 2007, quoted a senior official of the UN Human Rights Council saying that they had already made a “big mistake” by talking to the press earlier. “We will never know how many lives were lost because of it. We cannot make that mistake again.” The official went further and told the journalist: “Forget that you are a journalist. If, as a human being, you care at all about those who are suffering, you will not publish this report [about the IDPs]. I implore you: please do not aggravate the situation. It is already very precarious.”

As the UNICEF report disclosed the plight of the IDPs of Balochistan, the government in Islamabad as well as in Quetta insisted that no such thing existed in the province. Instead, the government termed the UNICEF report as exaggerated. Most of the displaced citizens, claimed the government, had returned to their homes as peace had supposedly returned to the area after the killing of Nawab Bugti and the dismantling of the fugitive camps.

After intense pressure from various NGOs, the government agreed to allow access to the UN agencies to operate in the area to help the displaced people. Nonetheless, this was an unconditional permission. The UN agencies were asked to help the people under official surveillance and without letting the media know about such relief operations.

The UN, finally on December 21, 2006, managed to initiate its million dollar aid package for the Baloch IDPs, which included setting up 57 feeding centres. But this aid project was soon disbanded after a UN official told the media that the IDPs should have been approached with help much earlier. This was seen as a violation of the so-called terms and conditions brokered between the government and the UN that no details of the operations would be provided to the media. Thus the UN was asked to pull out of Balochistan as a ‘punishment’ for telling the media that more assistance for the IDPs was required. Similar treatment was meted out to the Edhi Foundation of Pakistan which, after the completion of the first phase of its operations, made the same blunder and informed the press that it was about to begin the second phase of relief operations for the Baloch IDPs. The government also ordered the Edhi Foundation never to return to the ‘sensitive region’ without providing any convincing reasons.

There are obvious reasons for the country’s security establishment to create obstacles for aid workers. The grave violations of human rights during the military operation in Balochistan are likely to be exposed to the international community once they are granted access to Balochistan’s conflict zones.

Three years down the line, nothing has changed for the Baloch IDPs. The military and the elected governments have both made every possible effort to prevent aid workers to assist the Baloch IDPs. While extraordinary assistance was provided to the victims of the earthquake in Kashmir and the recent IDP crisis in Pakhtunkhwa province, the federal government has still not officially acknowledged the Baloch IDP crisis. Currently, there is not a single officially recognised IDP camp in the province while the displaced people are spread in Balochistan’s Naseerabad, Jaffarabad, Sibi and Bolan districts. In Sindh, they have gone to Jacobabad, Sukkur, Dadu and Karachi, while many others are languishing in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts of Punjab.

For the first time, the government announced Rs 1 billion for the rehabilitation of Bugti IDPs in the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package. It was too little too late. Before the government could begin work on the rehabilitation of the IDPs, a new deadly conflict broke out between the supporters of two grandsons of late Nawab Akbar Bugti — Mir Aali and Shahzain Bugti — as was anticipated by political gurus. Instigated a week ago, the armed clash between the Bugti cousins being fought for the control of 2,000 acre land has killed around 20 people so far. With the previously displaced people still unsettled, the fresh conflict is forcing hundreds of neutral people, mainly from the Khosa tribe, to leave their homes and take shelter in safer places.

The IDP situation in Balochistan was initiated by antagonistic polices of the previous government, while this time the issue is being perpetuated by those who want to divide and rule in the resource rich Balochistan province. At the end of the day, it is the poor masses who suffer. Instead of manipulating the unfolding conflict between the Bugti cousins, the government should immediately play a mediatory role in order to make sure that official plans to rehabilitate the Bugti IDPs are not derailed.

The writer is a staff member and can be reached at maliksiraj@dailytimes.com.pk

The Baloch Hal Editorial published on Jan 27th, 2010

By Malik Siraj Akbar
With the entire police force across Balochistan on a complete strike, threat to citizens’ lives and property has reached its zenith. As the strike seeking an increase in the monthly salaries of the policemen in Balochistan continued for the second day, the best remedy the government seemed to come up with was a decision to disarm the police force in Quetta. Policemen were given clubs in their hands and were denied weapons fearing that they could become as violent as they turned out to be on Monday.

While the provincial government and police personnel still have to hammer out a solution, the biggest threat in the meanwhile continues to be posed to public safety. The depressing state of lawlessness could easily be gauged on Tuesday evening when a government employee working with Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was killed in the provincial capital by unidentified persons. The police refused to visit the venue and help to hospitalize the victim of a firing incident by saying that they were on a strike. Unfortunately, the police did not go to the hospital either where the dead body of the WAPDA official was taken for autopsy. With such circumstances, what are the people in the province going to do when the police are adamant to protect public life and property? Until the issue is settled, one could surely say that everyone in Quetta is sitting on a time-bomb which could explode at any time.

What was done by the policemen on the first day of their protest rally is accurately regrettable. These actions have not only been widely condemned by people from different spheres of life but they have also curtailed sympathies for the ongoing movement intended to seek an increase in the salaries of the policemen. However, it is equally disappointing to see the federal and provincial governments doing nothing to at least address the issue so that an immediate peaceful and permanent solution is reached on this grave issue.

In order to temporarily grapple with the unexpected situation, the Balochistan government has only adopted a short-term and shortsighted measure by deploying the Frontier Corps in the city. The deployment of the Frontier Crops (FC), a controversial and belligerent federal force, on the state institutions and important parts of the provincial capital may help to secure the writ of the government for the time being. In the long run, it is certainly not going to soothe thousands of protesting policemen.

The crisis has struck at a time when Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani is out of the country. Despite that, several administrative decisions were briskly made to control the situation from becoming unmanageable. Fifteen policemen, including two DSPs [deputy superintendent of police], have been arrested. Cases have been registered against 250 policemen under the Criminal Act and 30 others have been suspended. That is the ultimate level of action the government could probably take.

Conflict management requires two-pronged win-win solutions to the problems. In this particular case, the government seems to falsely believe that it has fulfilled its responsibility. The issue is in fact far from over. The provincial government should have instantly initiated some backdrop diplomacy into the matter by negotiating with the leaders of the protest. By taking punitive and unilateral actions, the government is pushing the crisis deeper. The backlash is already there: Personnel of the Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) have now refused to give official protocol to any of the provincial ministers. They blocked the National Highway in Loralai district. They refuse to give up the next stage of their strike which will start at the end of this month when the policemen will give up their weapons. This could be taken as sort of a civil disobedience by the policemen of Balochistan.

One would fully endorse the official decision to suspend, arrest and implicate policemen responsible for instigating police in the provincial capital towards violence and torture. Yet, there is no shortcut to the solution of this issue. The government should give an explanation as to why the salaries of policemen in Balochistan have not been increased while Sindh, Punjab and Pakhtunkhawa provinces have already done so. Policemen are paid too little, say something like Rs. 5000 per month, which is very insufficient from them at this age of high inflation to fulfill the needs of their families. These economic woes further make this important department prone to corruption, inducement and developing links with the mafia.

The government may cite death of resources as a pretext for its inability to meet the policemen’s demands. This ploy is hardly going to convince anyone. The government of the country’s poorest province with around fifty ministers should observe austerity in favor of Balochistan police. The Chief Minister should decrease the number of ministers in his huge cabinet of some fifty ministers and restrict lavish official expenditures to find a way out for the policemen. Confronted with serious law and order problems at the moment, Balochistan cannot afford to have a permanent clash between the government and the police.

The Baloch Hal is Balochistan’s first online English newspaper
(www.thebalochhal.com)

The Baloch Hal Editorial: A dark and disgraceful day in Balochistan’s history published on Jan 25th, 2010
By Malik Siraj Akbar

January 25th 2010 will go down in the history of Balochistan as a dark and disgraceful day. It will be remembered as a day when the law of the land was brazenly violated by those who are paid to remain its custodian. Those responsible to guard the citizens’ lives and property were seen behaving like scoundrels by randomly torturing innocent civilians, torching public property, damaging people’s vehicles and adding to public miseries. The scenes witnessed on the roads of Quetta on Monday will continue to haunt every professional policeman. The hooligans attired in police uniform and brandishing official weapons have reasonably worried every law-abiding citizen.

Was it the harbinger of a civil war? Let’s wait and see. Let’s not underestimate this event. It surely did not come out of blue. Someone masterminded it; the others directed this play and the remaining executed the plan.

Intended to demand an increase in their salaries, thousands of armed policemen in Balochistan’s provincial capital, Quetta, took to the streets. Initially, everyone viewed it as a routine exercise of democratic right envisaged in a political dispensation. Public perceptions proved wrong. The policemen forcefully blocked all roads; burnt tyres, broke traffic single lights, shattered windowpanes of various vehicles. As thick smoke became visible from all four directions of the city, the protesting policemen reassured themselves that they had terrorized the whole city. Carrying clubs in one hand and pistols in the other, they slapped civilians, damaged motor cycles and smashed cars. Thousands of people stranded on the roads were disallowed to go home. Women, children, elderly citizens, hungry, thirsty, ailing and wailing passengers were subjected to inhuman treatment. They all surely had once thought of calling the police for help. The Police? They could not do so because the police in Quetta was demonstrating its most horrific face.

While democracy entitles every citizen of the land the right to expostulate for one’s rights, no democratic practice, including protest rallies, however, can be encouraged to become so undemocratic in their nature. The freedom of articulating one’s demands does not by any standards entitle the other person to make personal attacks on a man holding a prestigious position. No civilized society would allow the shameless actions of the Quetta police when it broke the gate of the Chief Minister House in Quetta. Not only this, but they also broke the glasses of the CM house building by pelting stones at them. They used extremely offensive and abusive language against Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, who is a highly respected tribal figure in Baloch society besides being the chief minister of Balochistan.

Democracy is not all about abusing your opponent publicly. Sadly, our policemen had never been taught such etiquettes. One could have million differences with the CM on the political front; it was not a Baloch or Pashtun tradition to use offensive language against a person holding dignified tribal stature.

In addition, arrogant policemen publicly humiliated and defied their big boss: Minister for Home and Tribal affairs, Mir Zafarullah Zehri. They disrespected around half of a dozen provincial ministers who had surely come with the sincere intention to heed the protestors’ demands.

The forceful entry of policemen and vandalizing with the CM house building was in fact an attack on the supremacy of law. One would be distressed if anyone behaved that way but we are deeply shocked and disappointed because this was done for the first time in the history of Balochistan by none other than the police.

Policemen also brutally beat several journalists during their protest rally. They injured Farid Ahmed, a reporter of Dunya TV and his cameraman when they were performing their professional duty without taking sides with either the government or the protestors. There was no reason to attack the press corps. In response, the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) has announced to boycott the coverage of the policemen’s ongoing protests. Further, journalists are planned to hold a protest rally against the incident on Tuesday. The attack on the press was another display of defiance by the police for the country’s Constitution and hostility towards freedom of press.

The Governor’s House was attacked too. As a matter of fact, the governor of a province is not responsible to deal with salary-related issues. He is a representative of the President of Pakistan. He has nothing to do with the affairs of the provincial government. Yet, the armed policemen forcefully entered the Governor House to show the might of guns they were carrying in their hands. That said, they conveyed a message to everyone that they were capable of taking the city hostage any time.

While saying this, one is of course not denying the right of the police officials in Balochistan to get an increase in their salaries, perks and privileges and compensations granted to the families of those recruits who are killed in various operations. We are equally not opposed to their right to protest. What attracted unanimous condemnation towards Monday’s rally was the wrong approach adopted by the policemen. Carrying guns, firing in the open air, beating civilians, damaging public property, forcefully entering the CM and Governor houses, beating the media representatives, harassing the civilians are the multiple factors that substantiate this protest a criminal activity.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani is highly commendable for upholding administrative commitment by taking brisk and stringent notice of Monday’s actions. It is encouraging that the CM has removed scores of top police officers, including the Deputy Inspector General (DIG Operations) and Capital City Police Officer (CCPO), from their current posts and promised to punish all the policemen responsible for the criminal demonstration of naked force in the streets of Quetta.

The Chief Minister should immediately order a full probe into the matter as this episode is coinciding with his recent blunt views expressed against the elements that have established a “parallel government” in Balochistan. Maybe, these elements are trying to create an anarchic situation in the province to force the Baloch chief minister to resign in the wake of an artificial chaos engineered in the province. The removal of some top policemen should not come as a cosmetic measure. All officers and policemen involved in instigating violence and damaging public property should be given exemplary punishment. At the same time, the provincial government should also make its position clear through the media as to why policemen in Balochistan have not been given an increment in their salaries. If three provinces have already increased the salaries of their policemen, what are the compulsions of the Balochistan government? The issue should be amicably sorted out through uninterrupted and interruptible dialogue between both the parties i.e. police and the government of Balochistan.

The Baloch Hal is the first online English language newspaper of Balochistan

The Baloch Hal Editorial: Judicial inquiry into Khuzdar tragedy Jan 22nd, 2010

By Malik Siraj Akbar

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani has taken strict notice of the killing of two activists of Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad) by promptly ordering a judicial inquiry into the matter. The legal probe would be conducted by Balochistan Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Qazi Faiz Essa, and two other judges of the Balochistan high court. This is surely a positive and bold stand taken by the provincial chief executive at a time critical juncture when there is consensus among all political parties and the members of civil society that justice must be done with the families of the two young students who lost their lives in the firing incident in Khuzdar.

Both the political activists were killed after personnel of the Frontier Corps allegedly opened indiscriminate fire on a peaceful democratic rally that was meant to expostulate over the recent target killing of Balochs in Karachi.

The killing of two BSO activists received extensive condemnation. Angry Balochs regardless of their political affiliations came out of their homes and participated in different protest rallies that condemned the naked aggression of the Frontier Corps against the people of Balochistan. Political parties across the province observed successful shutter down and wheel jam strikes. Life remained utterly paralyzed in many districts of the province to mark the killing of two innocent political workers. They demanded that the perpetrators of the firing incident, who reportedly belonged to the Frontier Corps, should immediately be brought to justice.

On its part, the FC, as usual, has been denying its involvement in the firing incident by saying that it was not deployed at the particular rally which came under indiscriminate firing. A FC spokesman said any judicial inquiry would be welcomed if the government opted for such an approach. The people of Balochistan are genuinely disillusioned over the excesses of the Frontier Corps as it is not the first time that the people have had to bear the brunt of FC’s belligerence.

Last year, the FC, in a similar provocative action, opened fire on a peaceful public rally in Thump area of Turbat district which was marking the death of Meer Jan Meeral, a local poet who was killed in a battle with the FC. As a result, Mukhtar Ahmed, a 20-year old student, was killed. When women from the area, headed by Banok Karima Baloch, a central leader of the Baloch Students Organization, marched before the FC camp in Turbat, they were responded with baton charge. Furthermore, a senior journalist from the area, Irshad Akhtar, was also baldy beaten up by the FC officials in order to prevent him from covering the historic protest rally of hundreds of Baloch women against the killing of Mukhtar Ahmed.

The killing of two political activists in Khuzdar has brought the provincial government under intense pressure. Public opinion has turned against the FC and it is certain to go against the provincial government if the latter minces words in denouncing the Khuzdar carnage. Even two provincial ministers – Sardar Aslam Bizenjo and Abdul Rehman Mengal— staged a walkout from the Balochistan Assembly session last week in protest against the tragic incident in Khuzdar. There could not be anything more embarrassing for the provincial government than a walk out staged by none other than its own ministers. After all, it has become very difficult for the provincial ministers to give a convincing explanation for the wrong actions taken by the FC. Amid such challenging times, the elected public representatives are expected to stop blindly supporting the actions of the security forces. Voters expect these members of the provincial legislative assembly to analyze the ground situation and stand with them at this critical juncture.

Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani has taken a very principled stance against the FC by publicly declaring that FC was running a parallel government in the province. Issuance of directives by CM Raisani to conduct a judicial inquiry into the cold-blooded murder of two Baloch students is a welcome decision. This will be fully commended only if an objective inquiry is conducted and the real faces behind the killing are not only exposed but also punished.

It is true that the people in Balochistan are by and large upset with the role of dormant judiciary. They have neither received relief on the issue of missing persons nor justice in the murder cases of Nawab Akbar Bugti and three other Baloch leaders –Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch – who were whisked away and then killed in Turbat allegedly by the Frontier Corps (FC). The people of Balochistan are once again giving the judiciary and the provincial government a chance to act against the elements that are crossing their constitutional mandate and causing bloodshed in the province under the pretext of establishing the writ of the government.

The Baloch Hal (www.thebalochhal) is the first online English newspaper of Balochistan)

Jam Mohammad Yousaf

The Baloch Hal Editorial: Jam Yousaf’s revelations about Nawab Bugti’s killingJan 21st, 2010

By Malik Siraj Akbar

Former prime minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and ex-chief minister of Balochistan Jam Mir Mohammad Yousaf, both senior leaders of previous ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Quaid-e-Azam), have initiated a war of media statements against each other. In a revealing media statement, Jam Yousaf has directly held former Prime Minister Jamali responsible for the murder of Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti, a leading Baloch tribal chief who also served as the governor and chief minister of Balochistan and was killed in a mysterious military operation in August 2006.

Jam Yousaf, in an interview with a national news agency, claimed that Jamali was directly responsible for the killing of Nawab Bugti as he allegedly played a vital role in worsening the political and security situation in Balochistan that subsequently culminated in the assassination of Nawab Bugti.

Jam Yousaf is widely regarded as an introvert man who refrains from regularly talking to the media. His recent interview is significant for the reason that he has, for the first time, bluntly disclosed several important developments that took place during his provincial government. Yousaf’s detractors will surely contest the veracity of his account of the recent history. Yousaf has challenged Jamali to provide any evidence if he has in his possession in which the former requested for a military operation meant to kill Nawab Bugti. According to him, the provincial government under his leadership had solely requested for deployment of the army at Sui to protect the gas plant. However, this decision was not taken by the then chief minister alone nor did he appeal to the federal government to unleash an operation against Nawab Bugti.

Yousaf disclosed that he had been assured by the then Corps Commander Quetta and Governor Balochistan Awais Ahmed Ghani that no operation would be carried out against Nawab Bugti. Having been assured by two key officials that no operation would take place against Bugti, Yousaf decided to leave for Karachi where he came to know about the killing of the 79-year old Baloch tribal-cum-political leader.

The former chief minister, who is now a member of the National Assembly, has made it clear that the army is not under the control of any chief minister. Therefore, the chief minister was not taken into confidence or consultation when operations were launched in Dera Bugti, Sui and other parts of Balochistan. Equating the situation of Sui and Dera Bugti with the current circumstances in Quetta where the provincial government headed by Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani has called for the Frontier Corps (FC) for deployment to grapple with the law and order problems, the previous government, recalled Yousaf, also had to call for the help of the military to restore peace in Sui after the gang rap of Dr. Shazia Khalid, an employee of Pakistan Petroleum Limited allegedly raped by a military captain, and firing of rockets on the gas installations.

Interestingly, the former chief minister also did not hesitate from pointing fingers at many of the ministers in his cabinet who approved of the military’s deployment in Sui by saying that they are also a part of the provincial government as well as the cabinet.

“I instructed former federal secretary for petroleum, Abdullah Yousaf, to go and negotiate with Nawab Bugti but he was stopped by Zafarullah Jamali who said that since the prime minister (Jamali) had not granted approval to the secretary to meet Nawab Bugti then why was he insisting to go there,” he revealed, “the onus of killing Nawab Bugti fully lies on Zafarullah Khan Jamali. I challenge him to substantiate that I requested him in black and white to carry out an operation against Nawab Bugti. Jamali is presenting distorted facts to gain public sympathies.”

Yousaf is among several others implicated by Jamil Akbar Bugti, a son of late Nawab Akbar Bugti, for the high-profile killing that totally changed the face of politics and society in Balochistan. The others implicated in the case, which is still pending at Balochistan High Court, are former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, former Balochistan governor Awais Ahmed Ghani and ex-home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani.

Jam Yousaf is right when he says that he is not solely responsible for killing Nawab Bugti. In fact, Nawab Bugti was killed by a barbaric system and a group of anti-Baloch elite in the power. Therefore, all eyes are focused on the upcoming verdict given by the Balochistan High Court in Jamil Bugti’s case. It seems there is too little realization in the ruling quarters what bringing the murderers of Nawab Bugti to justice means to the people of Balochistan. The way General Musharraf was given a guard of honor and allowed to freely escape the country and how Awais Ahmed Ghani was appointed as the governor of Pakhtunkhawa province implicitly indicates that the prime suspects of Bugti’s killing are still enjoying the backing of the powerful ruling sections of the establishment.

Jam Yousaf may not be fully innocent as he has argued in his interview. Yet, this interview reasserts the need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to expose all the hidden and relative visible faces responsible for igniting an infinite conflagration in Balochistan.

The Baloch Hal Editorial Jan 21st, 2010

By Malik Siraj Akbar

What a dismayed Chief Minister Balochistan, Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, said while talking to media on Tuesday about the Frontier Corps (FC) having established a parallel government in Balochistan was already known to everyone. Nobody was startled to hear that but surely they were waiting for an official confirmation from the chief minister to admit that the federal paramilitary force was not in the control of the provincial government and its provocative actions were undermining the credibility of the democratically elected provincial government.

In his media talk, the chief minister complained that the FC was running a parallel government in the province and was not under the control of the provincial government. Thus, it was causing problems for the provincial government to push forward its agenda of reconciliation in Balochistan with the Baloch leaders. .

The statement of the chief minister came days after the killing of two political activists of Baloch Students’ Organization (BSO-Azad) in Khuzdar district during a political rally. The local chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) confirmed that the firing was carried out on a peaceful rally of the BSO which was intended to protest the recent killing of Balochs in Karachi. The recent killings sparked a wave of criticism and condemnation across the province. Finding it hard to defend this sad development, two ministers of the provincial government, Sardar Aslam Bizenjo and Abdul Rehman Mengal staged a walked out from the provincial assembly session. They complained that the government was offering a Balochistan package on the one hand and killing the Baloch political activists on the other hand.

Chief Minister Raisani had previously said in an interview with Karachi-based respected monthly Herald in July 2009 that if it were his will, he would drive all the security forces outside the province. On its part, the Frontier Corps (FC) said it was called by the provincial government in Quetta to contain the cases of target killings. In an informal chat with the journalists of Quetta at FC headquarters in Quetta, Major General Saleem Nawaz, the Inspector General of the FC, had said that his forces would withdraw immediately once they were ordered by the provincial government to do so.

For Raisani, it is a catch-22 situation. He cannot immediately order the withdrawal of FC from Quetta as the latter has proved very helpful to contain target killings in Quetta city. If the FC is pulled out of the city, the provincial capital is likely to face an upsurge in the cases of target killings. On the other hand, if the FC continues to serve in place of the regular police force, it is likely to alienate the masses due to its very unprofessional public dealing with the civilians. FC is known as a force that arrogantly treats the citizens and humiliates them publicly.

Defining the role of FC is in fact the need of the hour for the provincial government. While establishing the writ of the government is understandably the primary responsibility of the provincial government, no security force can be given an absolutely free hand under any pretext. Currently, the FC poses a major threat to the stability of the provincial government. Therefore, the Chief Minister must not only object over its defiant role in the media but should immediately discuss the matter with President Asif Ali Zardari.

If the FC officials were responsible for the killing of young students in Khuzdar then the perpetrators of that ugly episode must be punished. There is a growing demand from different quarters that a judicial inquiry must be conducted into Khuzdar killings. This proposal has also been welcomed by the spokesman of the Frontier Corps, who insists that the FC was not deployed at all at the rally in which two political workers were killed. Perhaps, the FC derives its confidence from the fact that never before were its officials punished for their extra-constitutional actions.

The chief minister has also complained about lack of cooperation by the bureaucracy in Islamabad with the provincial government. In addition, he flabbergasted everyone by stating for the first time that the Balochistan Package announced by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani had nothing new to offer to the province.

CM Raisani must be applauded for his fearless stance against the FC and federal bureaucracy. The Chief Minister has taken side with the interest of the people of Balochistan. This is what the people wanted to hear from the provincial chief executive. Raisani’s bold stance should alarm the rulers in Islamabad as it indicates that alienation in Balochistan is not only confined to Baloch nationalists but even the chief minister of the province feels dissatisfied and powerless. If timely attention is not paid to the recent complaint of Nawab Raisani, the situation in Balochistan may take a very dramatic turn which would make it more difficult for Islamabad to govern Balochistan in near future.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
COMMENT: Plans to sabotage the Balochistan package —Malik Siraj Akbar

Backed by powerful quarters, the FC is simultaneously penetrating Baloch society as a community police, intelligence agency, force to crush political dissent and a tool of propaganda against the Baloch nationalist leadership

Smooth implementation of the Balochistan package, as announced by Prime Minister Gilani, is extremely essential to immediately de-escalate tensions in the insurgency-stricken Balochistan province. Two months after the announcement of the package, indications have now emerged on the political milieu to foresee the sabotage of the multi-pronged Balochistan package. What Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, General Secretary of the PML-Q, bills as “a hawkish mindset in the establishment that does not believe in the rights of smaller provinces” is once again out to derail the reconciliation process in Balochistan.

On January 15, the Frontier Corps (FC) opened indiscriminate fire on a peaceful political rally of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) in Khuzdar, reported the local chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). This unprovoked firing killed two young students and injured four others. The killing of political activists by a federal paramilitary force that is often seen as an ‘alien force’ in Balochistan has sparked a renewed phase of protests and demonstrations across Balochistan.

The FC has become a new power centre in the restive province. Having a clearly defined constitutional mandate to guard Balochistan’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan, the FC has, on the contrary, begun work on multiple tasks. The worst among such responsibilities is the job to crush political opponents. Last year, the FC besieged the offices of three Quetta-based newspapers in order to force them to give up their editorial policies and follow the establishment’s line. While two newspapers bravely resisted the pressure, Daily Asaap had to succumb to mounting pressure and shut down its publication for good.

The FC is also blamed for whisking away political activists and handing them over to intelligence agencies. In one such significant breach of law, FC officials whisked away three prominent Baloch nationalist leaders –Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch — from the legal chamber of Kachkol Ali Baloch, former leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, in April last year. No police station agreed to register a case against the FC in connection with the ‘disappearance’ of the Baloch leaders nor did the courts take notice despite submission of an application by the lawyer of the three missing leaders. A week later, the dead bodies of all three Baloch leaders were recovered at a deserted place in the outskirts of Turbat district.

Widely regarded as a controversial and belligerent official, Major General Saleem Nawaz, the Inspector General (IG) of the FC, has always remained defensive about the activities of his force. In the first place, Major General Nawaz insisted that those who whisked away the three Baloch leaders from Turbat did not belong to the FC. Similarly, he contradicted the local media, political parties and the HRCP regarding the fresh killings in Khuzdar district by insisting that the FC had not been deployed at the protest rally where the firing took place.

Observers believe that the IG exercises more power than the provincial chief minister. He is the only official deployed in the province who does not hesitate in giving statements related to foreign affairs. Backed by powerful quarters, the FC is simultaneously penetrating Baloch society as a community police, intelligence agency, force to crush political dissent and a tool of propaganda against the Baloch nationalist leadership.

It is not the first time that hawks in the establishment are discouraging a political solution to the Balochistan conflict. The timing of such gruesome developments, like the one in Khuzdar, is significant given the fact that the political leadership is making some progress in settling the Balochistan issue through dialogue. The Khuzdar killings must have come as a major disappointment for Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani who was still busy celebrating the breakthrough achieved among the federal government and the four provinces on the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award at Gwadar.

Though the Balochistan package was widely rejected by nationalist parties, it still has the potential to mitigate public disillusionment provided that most, if not all, of the recommendations proposed in the package are implemented without any delay. While the government has acted too slowly to induct some drastic changes on the political, social and economic fronts, hawks in the establishment, on the other hand, have unfortunately moved faster to sabotage the Balochistan package.

For instance, political activists have gone missing in Balochistan even after the presentation of the package. No doubt, the issue of missing persons has become the major source of unrest in Balochistan. On the eve of presenting the Balochistan package, Prime Minister Gilani promised that all missing persons would soon return home to celebrate Eid with their families. Though the government had issued a verified list of 992 missing persons, hardly any were released. Chief Minister Raisani added fuel to the fire when he said in Khuzdar that many of the missing persons had deliberately gone underground merely to malign state intelligence agencies. On the other hand, children and women hailing from the families of the missing persons have once again established a hunger strike camp before the Quetta Press Club to coax the government into releasing the missing persons. They are planning a long march from Quetta to Islamabad in the coming days.

The kind of stand the provincial and federal governments have taken on the issue of enforced disappearances clearly shows their powerlessness to deal with this ‘sensitive’ matter entailing ‘sensitive institutions’. Hence, no progress has been made in recovering the missing persons, even after the presentation of the Balochistan package. Worse still, the recent firing incident on the protestors in Khuzdar is likely to further jeopardise the peace process in Balochistan.

Elements in the establishment sabotaged a similar previous attempt to find a political solution to the Balochistan conflict back in 2004 when a parliamentary committee headed by Mushahid Hussain Syed had almost achieved some progress in talks with Baloch leaders. As the leaders hailing from Marri, Bugti and Mengal tribes and the National Party agreed to negotiate with the parliamentary committee on Balochistan on all outstanding issues, security forces derailed the peace process by arresting Baloch political activists and carrying out search operations in different districts. As a result, the Baloch leaders withdrew from the parliamentary committee in protest. Even then, the government could have done some damage control if the recommendations of the parliamentary committee were wholeheartedly implemented. According to Mushahid Hussain, the chairman of the committee, elements in the establishment did not allow the implementation of the recommendations of the parliamentary committee.

Another area that merits attention in the wake of the newly announced Balochistan package is the official plan to provide 20,000 jobs to the unemployed youth of Balochistan. The provincial government has already given the department of Services and General Administration the responsibility to collect forms and undertake the recruitment process. Many Baloch see the recruitment process sceptically because the government in Quetta has not chalked out a proper recruitment policy to ensure the employment of deserving people.

The Baloch complain that a majority of the beneficiaries of these jobs are the urban non-Baloch youth, while the rural youth does not have the resources to travel to the provincial capital, Quetta, to apply for these announced jobs. Likewise, they demand that jobs be distributed among the districts so that all districts in Balochistan benefit from the package. Under the current recruitment procedure, the biggest beneficiaries are the young boys and girls from Quetta.

On the other hand, youth from remote parts of the province who have truly been affected by the turmoil in the province, fear that they may not be able to compete on open merit with the youth of Quetta who are educationally more competent than those from backward areas. Chief Minister Raisani has completely rejected the proposal of distributing jobs to districts by saying that all aspiring candidates must be selected on open merit. If merit is the sole benchmark for recruitment in the regressive province of Balochistan, ground realities suggest that unemployed youth from Dera Bugti and Kohlu will most probably remain outside the national mainstream forever.

The government has to first of all minimise the use of force by the security forces against the people of Balochistan in order to save the reconciliation process from being hijacked and elements responsible for the Khuzdar firing incident must be brought to justice. Secondly, the government must not waste much time in implementing the recommendations of the Balochistan package. Durable peace in Balochistan is intertwined with sustainability of government policies and timely implementation of the Balochistan package.

The writer is a staff member and can be reached at maliksiraj@dailytimes.com.pk

By Malik Siraj Akbar

A state of “high alert” was declared in all airports of Balochistan, including Quetta, after intelligence reports provided to Airport Security Force (ASF) suggested that the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was planning to hijack a plane of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The security was further beefed for the second day on Monday as it seemed that the threat was still not over.

While much has been said in the past about alleged Indian involvement in the prevailing unrest in Balochistan, it was the first time that a prior warning was issued by the authorities of a possible airline hijacking sponsored by the Indian intelligence agency. It was a clear and loud message delivered to a vast audience. Officials have not disclosed much about the authenticity of the intelligence information provided regarding such an unpleasant development. However, the declaration of a state of ‘high alert’ has surely scared the citizens, mainly the passengers traveling by air from and to Quetta and different destinations in Balochistan.

Earlier on January 1st this year, Pakistani officials had claimed they have captured an “Indian agent” from Qila Saifullah district of Balochistan. They identified the suspect as Abdul Salam, an Afghan national, and added that they had also recovered important documents and maps from the Afghan refugee’s custody. Lahore-based Daily Times quoted an official as saying, “we believe he works for RAW. He entered Pakistan via Afghanistan and hid himself in a refugee camp.” What happened to him? Nobody knows.

The issue of Indian involvement in Balochistan has been broached by country’s big guns like Interior Minister Rehman Malik, federal minister Humayun Aziz Kurd, Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif and former prime minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. On the other hand, the governor and chief minister of Balochistan have refrained from making such allegations on India. Similarly, the inspector General of Frontier Corps Major General Saleem Nawaz has time and again held “India-sponsored nationalists operating from Kabul” responsible for the ongoing armed resistance movement. All these officials have had one thing in common: Allegations sans evidence.

When former education minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan was killed in Quetta city by the shadowy outfit Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF), the provincial chief of Pakistan People’s Party Senator Lashkari Raisani had publicly stated that the minister had been shot dead because of his vocal anti-India stance. Thus, he tired to argue that the education minister was “punished” for speaking against India. If what Senator Raisani said was true then it was safe to conclude that India had (literally) reached our doorsteps. (Shafiq was killed outside his home).

The issue of alleged Indian involvement in Balochistan was also raised by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani with his Indian counterpart in July last year during their meeting at Egyptian resort Sharm-ul-Shiek. Though there was an outcry in India by the media and political pressure groups about the Indian PM’s willingness to allow Balochistan to be mentioned in the joint declaration, pressure groups in Pakistan, on the other hand, considered it as a major foreign policy success to convince India to agree to talk about its alleged role in Balochistan.

Since Islamabad has not made public any kind of evidence, fear and speculations about the nature of Indian involvement are continuously increasing. The Baloch nationalists have ruled out the possibility of Indian support as many times as these allegations were repeated from the official quarters. The Balochs insist that they are fighting an indigenous struggle without any foreign assistance. Political pundits insist that there may not be sizeable Indian involvement in the province at the moment. But flawed and oppressive government polices in Balochistan make the province vulnerable to such exploitation by foreign forces, including India.

If Indian intelligence agency was truly planning to hijack a PIA airline from Balochistan then it is definitely a matter of concern. This will not only awfully impact the already aloof relationship between the two countries but will also engulf the innocent civilians. People on both sides of the border want improvement of bilateral relations between the two countries. They are opposed to the ongoing cold war between Islamabad and New Delhi. Nonetheless, public opinion regarding improvement of relations may drastically shift if rivalries between the arch rivals culminate into a hijacking of an airline carrying civilian passengers from either of the countries.

In a highly politicized culture of Balochistan, people have by now learnt to question every government statement and policy. Many in Balochistan may not blindly digest the official stance. This rationalist school of thought believes that the government is trying to divert attention from the recent killing of two Baloch political activists in Khuzdar reportedly by the Frontier Corps (FC) by staging such dramas from time to time.

If this assumption is correct, which sounds convincing too, then the government should stop holding foreign hands for its own weaknesses. The government must improve the performance of its intelligence agencies and security forces to professionally perform their jobs rather than always putting the blame on RAW, Blackwater or CIA for every violent case reported in the country.

The Baloch Hal Editorial Jan 18th, 2010

By Malik Siraj Akbar

It is depressing to recall that Balochistan is the least educated province in Pakistan. More depressing is the fact that education is one of the most neglected sectors in the province. Pakistan People’s Party MPA-elect Tahir Mehmood has been appointed as the new education minister by Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani. Mehmood replaces his brother late Shafiq Ahmed Khan who was gunned down in Quetta a few months ago.

While contesting by-elections and winning a seat that was vacated after the killing of Shafiq Ahmed Khan was an easy job for Mr. Tahir Mehmood by virtue of support extended to him by his party and several other political groups in the province, dealing with this key portfolio, on the other hand, is not going to be an easy task. The new education minister will be required to work extraordinarily hard to improve the state of education in Balochistan.

With a literacy rate of only 34% (20% for women), Balochistan’s education sector is plague with multiple challenges. Days before his assassination, former education minister Shahfiq Ahmed Khan had disclosed that the province was home to as many as 3500 “ghost schools” –schools with buildings and staff registered in the official record but dysfunctional in reality. He had pledged to dismantle these ghost schools and make them functional. This dream could not materialize as the education minister was killed before he could fulfill his promise. However, ghost schools in Balochistan, no matter what their actual number is, need to be grappled with immediately.

Besides, one reason for the educational backwardness of Balochistan is the deep-rooted political influence in recruitment of teachers –a process that often inducts incompetent teachers in the public schools. The new education minister must take notice of political appointments, transfers and posting of teachers.

People have by now stopped talking about the ‘cheating culture’ in the educational institutions of Balochistan. Cheating from text books and handbooks during examinations is so common among the students at school, college and even university level that many students now consider it as their ‘democratic right’ to cheat during the examinations. No education minister or secretary has ever taken the issue of cheating very seriously nor were concerted efforts ever made to curb this negative trend. Plenty of students enrolled in the government schools entirely hinge on cheating during examinations for passing their tests.

With such students, who fully depend on cheating, what are we actually expecting form our younger generation? They can give us anything except an education young generation.

Every government has snubbed this alarming trend by making various excuses. For example, the government officials are often heard admitting that cheating is our culture and it is not possible to end it overnight. Of course, no one is asking for ending the cheating culture “overnight”. As the cheating culture has, ironically, become the ‘democratic right’ of students after many years ‘struggle’, it needs to be reversed with similar struggle on the part of the government.

Firstly, the government must recruit teachers on merit not on political grounds. The packages being offered to public teachers should be improved and compatible with the economic needs of the time. Teachers must be made punctual and dutiful. The services of senior education experts should be hired to revise the current syllabus so that it is prepared while considering the modern educational requirements.

According to National Economic Survey (NES), 8.6 percent out of the 10,381 educational institutions in Balochistan are in a ‘dangerous’ condition. About 24.7 percent of these need major repairs while 36.6 percent require minor repairs. Only 30.2 percent are in satisfactory conditions.

The total number of institutions in the country that have buildings is 216,490. Out of those, 51.6 percent are in satisfactory conditions, 26 percent need minor repairs, 17 percent need major repairs, and ‘only’ 5.7 percent are in dangerous conditions.

About six percent of the schools in Balochistan do not have buildings, nine percent lack electricity, 12 percent are devoid of clean drinking water and 11 percent are without proper latrine.

The province also has the smallest number of educational institutions – 10,381 against the national number of 216,490 out of which 106,435 are located in the Punjab, 46,862 in Sindh and 36,029 in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). This, according to the NES, means that “out of the total number of institutions, 48 percent are to be found in the Punjab, 22 percent in Sindh, 17 percent in the NWFP and 5 percent in Balochistan.” With 43 percent of the total national territory and vast natural resources, Balochistan happens to be the largest province of Pakistan. But the province has the lowest literacy rate.

Balochistan’s total literacy rate is 34 percent against the national literacy rate of 52 percent – 57 percent of which is for the Punjab, 50 percent for Sindh and 49 percent for the NWFP. The literacy rate among males in Balochistan is 39 percent, the lowest in the country. The Punjab has 60 percent and Sindh and the NWFP both have 54. Similarly, the literacy rate among women in Balochistan is also the worst in the country. With only 27 percent literate women, Balochistan stands poorly against the national female literacy rate of 48 percent – 53 percent for the Punjab, 42 percent for Sindh and 27 percent for the NWFP.

Balochistan also lags behind all the three provinces in the Net Enrolment Rate (NER). “The NER for primary schools was 42 percent in 2001-02, which increased significantly to 52 percent in 2005-06. Overall, both the sexes have recorded a 10 percent increase in 2005-06 as compared to 2001-02. The Punjab (57 percent) has ranked first followed by Sindh, the NWFP, and then Balochistan,” the survey stated.

Balochistan has proved to be the slowest with only a two percent increase in its literacy rate during the past seven years. The province, according to the NES, has only progressed from 36 to 38 percent.

Balochistan also has the lowest presence of private schools – 1,750, as compared to 48,541 in the Punjab, 12,574 in Sindh and 11,276 in the NWFP. The NES has noted that more than 76,000 private institutions in Pakistan attend to the educational needs of 12 million children. The trend in enrolment shows that the gender gap is closing down in the case of private schools as compared to public schools.

During the previous government, Balochistan experienced improvement in the state of higher education as more universities were opened in the province. However, too little was done to improve the state of education at primary level. It is hoped that the new education minister will pay more attention to the improvement of primary education in the province. The task of improving the state of education in Balochistan is surely overriding but not impossible.