THE announcement by Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik that 35 of the 54 check posts of the Frontier Corps (FC) in Balochistan will be dismantled and relocated to the province’s borders from urban areas is welcome news. The removal of the FC checkpoints has been one of the longstanding demands of the people of Balochistan, who have complained of harassment at the hands of FC troops in settled areas and on highways. In addition to this, Mr Malik made several other announcements: the law enforcment agencies operating in the province are to work under the chief minister; political prisoners will be relased and non-criminal cases against them dropped; and new confidence building measures will be taken up to bring the tribal sardars to the negotiating table.
Since few things in Balochistan are straightforward, the success of the measures depends on what happens next. First, Mr Rehman’s commitment that army personnel will be withdrawn from the interior of the province and replaced by civilian forces raises a question: which civilian forces? There is no doubt that the FC presence is deeply resented by the Baloch but the police is not likely to win over hearts and minds either. Indeed, one of the demands of the province’s leaders is to revive the Balochistan levies, which have been merged with the local police in recent years. According to Balochistan’s politicians, the local levies are better suited to serve the local communities; the predominantly non-Baloch police is eyed with suspicion by locals and considered repressive and corrupt. In fact one of the key recommendations of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan formed under the last government was to retain the Balochistan levies.
Moreover, the latest measures fall short of addressing basic issues. The districts of Dera Bugti and Kohlu have been the hub of militancy but, given their currently inflamed state, the FC troops are unlikely to be withdrawn from there — virtually guaranteeing further clashes in the province. For the militants, the withdrawal of troops and resettlement of the displaced people of the districts — estimated last October by the International Crisis Group to be at least 84,000 — are prerequisites for peace. For the government, the withdrawal of troops while government installations and officials are under attack is a non-starter. A compromise has thus far proved elusive. Perhaps it is time the government considers a general amnesty along the lines offered by Gen Zia in 1979 that helped bring an end to the last — and much wider — insurgency in Balochistan. Interior Adviser Malik did announce the formation of a committee to review cases against political leaders, but it will do little to tempt the most radical of Balochistan’s militants to lay down their arms. So the verdict on Mr Malik’s latest measures must be: good, but not good enough.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/30/ed.htm
Balochistan scene
TWO years after the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, that the authorities at that time believed would take the sting out of the violent protests Balochistan had become accustomed to, things have not much changed. A rocket attack here or a bomb explosion there continues to be the norm, with the inevitable consequence of a varying death toll. Only on Monday, eight persons lay dead and 26 others injured, including three journalists and three children, in a series of incidents that the memory of Nawab Bugti and others who died with him in the Tratani Mountains had most probably occasioned. However, the basic reason: the local people's anger at the raw deal they have received over the years. Several political parties have joined together in making a wheel-jam and general strike call in the province.
Ordinarily, one would imagine that the new set-up, that is yet trying to find its feet, should stand in need of time enough to gauge the situation and formulate policies to redress the local people's grievances. But since these grievances are quite well known and the spadework for removing them had been done by a parliamentary committee on Balochistan constituted by the previous regime, the new government ought to have initiated some action already that could have raised hopes of the local population. The delay is leading the people to believe that even the political administration has no intention of looking into their plight. A Senator from Balochistan warned on Monday that the government's indifference was compelling the people to think in terms of independence, and another has complained of genocide.
The province has heard too often commitments like the one Senator Raza Rabbani, leader of the House in the Senate, has made. There is no point in keeping on regretting the injustices of the past, or saying that the government was committed to bring about radical changes in its policy on Balochistan, when there is hardly any sign of movement towards that end. It is time to act.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Editorials/27-Aug-2008/Balochistan-scene
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