Daily Times

Launching insurgency to give vent to one’s angst and anguish on the coercive and injudicious policies of the state is one thing, but desecrating the relics of the founding father of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah is entirely a different proposition. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which accepted the responsibility for the attack on the Ziarat Residency, did a great disservice to the cause of Baloch rights. By doing so, the BLA put all those in trouble that used to sympathise with the Baloch cause and dared speak out against the acts of highhandedness of the state apparatus (the Pakistan army, the Frontier Corps, and the related intelligence agencies), carried out under whatever artifice on Baloch soil.

It is already known that the flag of Pakistan is not hoisted in several parts of Balochistan and is burnt in several areas. However, to replace the flag of Pakistan hoisted on the Ziarat Residency with the flag of the BLA was a new thing. This act has dented the wave of sympathy that was sweeping across Pakistan for Baloch rights. What is worrying is that today the Residency has been blown up in Ziarat; tomorrow Mr Jinnah’s mausoleum may be flattened by certain other disgruntled elements in Karachi.

Perhaps the Ziarat Residency was left unprotected under the presumption that it was out of the ambit of ‘everything is fair in love and war’.

The other day, the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, delivered a speech in South Waziristan and asked the internally displaced people to come back and repopulate their native land. One wonders when such a speech will also be delivered in Dera Bugti and the displaced Baloch hailing from Dera Bugti belonging to the Bugti tribe, who have been staging a sit-in in Islamabad on Constitution Avenue for months, will go back to their indigenous area. In fact, to settle the people of the Bugti tribe in their native land is a bounden duty of Chaudhry Nisar, the new Interior Minister. Their resettlement in their own area will be a test case for the authority of Mr Nisar if he can shake the status quo established by the state apparatus in Dera Bugti.

Great hopes were pinned on the election 2013. It was expected that all those Baloch nationalist parties that had boycotted the election in 2008 would take part zealously and become an active part of the national political mainstream. That dream has not been fulfilled because certain parties decided to take part in the election quite late when the election canvassing of their competitors was in full swing. The laggards such as Sardar Akhtar Mengal and Sanaullah Baloch overestimated their voter strength and dithered for certain reasons. Consequently, they lost several seats to those who had taken the election campaign seriously and had planned the political make-and-break aptly. This time the level playing field was provided to all and the election commission took care of the fairness and transparency of the election.

Generally speaking, it is apparent that all political parties of Pakistan have learnt the lesson that boycotting elections is an exercise in futility. The better strategy is to take part in the elections, get to the Assemblies and raise their voice there. The emergence of a representative of the Baloch (educated) middle class who also happens to be a Baloch nationalist such as Dr Malik is a good omen. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been generous enough to offer Dr Malik the seat of the chief minister of the province. Undoubtedly, by taking that decision, the PML-N forfeited its political interests (because it could have formed its own government) and served the interests of Pakistan. The PML-N must be appreciated for this act of political reconciliation done on behalf of the federation of Pakistan.

One of the theories being bandied about is that the surfacing of Dr Malik as the chief minister has shaken the traditional political set-up of Balochistan woven around the monolith of Sardars (tribal chieftains). The resultant animosity is being expressed through acts to provoke the state apparatus to do anything in a knee-jerk fashion. Certainly, the consequences of any such reaction will be unbearable for Dr Malik and his government. Both may become useless in the eyes of a common Baloch. If that happens, not only the displeasure of the nationalist Baloch with the federation will be reinforced but also the path of a middle class educated Baloch running the civil administrative affairs of Balochistan will be obliterated. In this way, the attack on the Ziarat Residency seems an act at the behest of those who want to see Dr Malik frustrated and retreating into political solitude and with that the formula of running Balochistan’s affairs by a Baloch nationalist will fail.

The PML-N should take care of the fact that the disgruntled Baloch who have gone into the mountains to launch an insurgency are mostly from the middle class and they are mostly the educated youth. In Dr Malik, the federation can find a person who can speak to those disgruntled middle class youth and persuade them to mend their ways and join the political mainstream to raise their voice at a political platform such as the Assemblies. Secondly, the PML-N should persuade the Baloch on the benefits of the development of the Gwadar port being carried out by China. The Baloch should be assured that the economic interests of Balochistan will be safeguarded when the port is developed and accrue financial benefits.

The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.com