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Worse Than Raisani


By Malik Siraj Akbar The Pakistan Muslim League (P.M.L.-N) hasattained the required support to form a coalition government in Balochistan after the Pakhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party (P.K.M.P) of Mahmood Khan Achakzai and the National Party of Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch announced to join the next administration. The new coalition partners have decided to keep the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam … Read more

The Reluctant Nationalist


The Balochistan National Party (B.N.P.) of Sardar Akhtar Mengal has rejected the results of May 11 polls and launched a massive protest campaign against what it calls as the rigged polls. The Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party and the National Party, which performed beyond expectations, are neither a part of Mr. Mengal’s protest nor are they … Read more

How Nawaz Sharif Can Help Balochistan


Political parties that won Saturday’s general elections in Balochistan have already initiated contacts with other parties to form a coalition government. According to the results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party has emerged as the largest political party with 11 seats in the Balochistan Assembly which is followed by … Read more

Pakistan Elections: No Hopes For Minority Ahmadis


By Malik Siraj Akbar Two weeks before Pakistan’s general elections scheduled for this weekend (May 11), the U.S.Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that Washington designate Islamabad as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) with regard to the freedom of religion enjoyed by all citizens. The USCIRF says, among the countries that are currently not on the … Read more

Elections Over; But Where Are the Balochistan Results?


The Election Commission of Pakistan (E.C.P.) has not released the official results of Saturday’s elections nearly 24 hours after the counting of the votes began. The delay in the release of the official results is eventually causing panic among some political parties that are now complaining about alleged rigging and mismanagement of the polls. The … Read more

Elections With a Positive Outcome in Balochistan


Saturday’s general elections in Balochistan largely remained peaceful, transparent and productive despite the lowest voters’ turnout probably ever witnessed in the history of the province. Voters’ turnout is hardly given much consideration while judging the success of an election as long as a candidate is elected and all political parties are provided a level playing field in the election … Read more

Pakistan’s Unfair Elections


On May 1, 2013, a full-page ad in Pakistan’s Dawnnewspaper read: “My Dear Pakistanis, have you thought why PPP, ANP and MQM are targeted?” The ad was referring to three secular political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Awami National Party (ANP.) and the Muthida Quami Movement (MQM). The three parties formed a coalition that ran the … Read more

National Party-J.U.I-F Nexus


The National Party (N.P.) has taken a dramatic decision to support the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (J.U.I.-Fazal) in Khuzdar district against the candidate of the Balochistan National Party (B.N.P.-Mengal). This move has attracted considerable criticism from Baloch nationalist quarters for a number of reasons. Firstly, the J.U.I.-F was a part and parcel of the past two … Read more

Repression is Unlikely to Make Baloch Proud Pakistani Citizens: Dr. Frederic Grare


Dr. Frederic Grare is the author of the recently published report Balochistan: The State Versus the Nation published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington DC-based think-tank where he is the Director and Senior Associate of the South Asia Program. Dr. Grare had previously written another important report on Balochistan,Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism. The Baloch Hal editor-in-chiefMalik … Read more

Teachers’ Decision: An Extraordinary Setback For Elections


Two weeks before the upcoming general elections, the Government Teachers’ Association (G.T.A.), the biggest union of public school teachers in Balochistan, hasannounced that its members will not perform election duty on May 11 due to security concerns. The G.T.A. says as many as 18,441 government school teachers in 11 Baloch-dominated districts of Balochistan will not offer … Read more

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