Grievances of Balochistan

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday announced an All-Parties Conference (APC) to hash out the Balochistan issue.

On the same day, the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights urged both the judiciary and the incumbent to stop the violations of human rights by the security forces in the region.

Regrettably, the civilian leadership has paid little more than lip service when it comes to issue of Balochistan. Similar case was observed in 2008 when the premier, amidst much hope and publicity, pronounced the Balochistan package, a fairly reasonable article that spoke of real restructuring.

Conversely, this document has been gathering dust and never to be spoken of and never to be acted on again. The National Assembly (NA), instead of practicing on the package, found it more helpful to pass a resolution condemning the US Congress for daring to discuss the situation in the region.

It did a good step to challenge the US but when it comes to probing or even simply condemning, the Frontier Corps’ policy of extrajudicial killings and illegal kidnappings, its tongue abruptly loses its intensity.

On the other hand, there are very thin hopes that the judiciary may be more effective than the legislature at forcing the security forces to mend its ways in the region. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on January 27, ordered the heads of the MI and ISI to produce a report documenting the killing in the province.

By summoning the prime minister in contempt of court case and seeking reply from powerful secret agencies in the case of Adiala Jail prisoners, the judiciary has shown that it is capable o of holding the powerful people accountable.

The chief justice himself has links to Balochistan so this might also inspire him into further legal action.

The issue, however, is that it may already be too late. Breakaway sentiment in the province is now already far-flung and nationalist groups have no problem with responding to military violence vis-à-vis.

There is a very little hope of a peaceful resolution to grievances of Balochistan. At the same time, there are many people languishing in unidentified torture cells, or killed for no reason other than their provincial identity, will carry on to deny justice system.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 17 2012. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.