Hopes and
frustrations
Frustrated by
the lack of any progress on the six points Akhtar Mengal enunciated as the
basis for becoming a coalition partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI)
government, his party, the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) started
flirting with the opposition by hinting it might leave the coalition and even
attend the opposition’s All Parties Conference (APC) held the other day.
However, given the exigencies of getting the federal budget passed in the
National Assembly (NA), the PTI leadership went into damage control mode.
First, a BNP-M delegation led by Akhtar Mengal met Prime Minister (PM) Imran
Khan, where the Baloch leader complained of lack of any progress on the agreed
six points. After assurances from the PM to expedite the matter, and a
delegation level discussion with PTI leaders, Defence Minister Parvez Khattak
and Akhtar Mengal held a joint press conference in which they announced that
the misgivings and misunderstandings between the two allies had been addressed.
Steps to be taken included the setting up of a parliamentary committee to
examine the most contentious and sensitive of the six points of BNP-M. This
issue is the matter of enforced disappearances and missing persons, which in
Balochistan, it is claimed by the nationalists, has ‘swallowed up’ thousands of
people. The Commission on Enforced Disappearances contests this figure, relying
on its own record of a few thousand complaints that have, according to it, been
‘dealt with’. The Commission headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal may rest
content with this bald statement, but this is of little comfort to the families
of the disappeared, who have been undergoing the mental and emotional torture
of not knowing the fate of their missing loved ones for years. The fact that
the PTI government has accepted that the problem persists and is setting up a
parliamentary committee to investigate the issue is a positive sign. What
remains to be seen is whether this was solely driven by the expedient need to
have the BNP-M, with its crucial four votes in the NA, on board, or whether the
PTI government sincerely wishes to put balm on these festering wounds of the
Baloch people.
BNP-M and its
leader Akhtar Mengal seem to have come to the pragmatic conclusion that the issues
bedevilling their province (which the government now admits are of a political
nature) cannot be redressed in any meaningful manner by the opposition. Hence,
after a brief flirtation intended to send a warning to the government, they
re-engaged with the PTI. Missing persons heads the list of their grievances,
but there are other important issues too forming part of the BNP-M’s six-point
demands on which the government has responded positively. These include water
scarcity in Balochistan, on which Parvez Khattak announced many small dams and
two large ones will be built in the province to overcome this crisis. The
swamping of Gwadar by outsiders, the possible acquisition by them of voting
rights in the province and the consequent possibility of the local people being
turned into a minority were discussed and government assurances given. Parvez Khattak
announced the setting up of a gold/copper refinery in the province, another
idea that has been floating around since these minerals began to be mined in
Balochistan by Chinese companies. Balochistan’s quota of six percent federal
jobs too was (once again) reiterated by the government as an issue that will be
incrementally dealt with. Repatriation of Afghan refugees remains an
outstanding demand of the BNP-M. In his press conference, Mengal revealed that
the PM assured him that Balochistan would not be subjected to any cut in its
National Finance Commission Award nor will the 18th Amendment be
rolled back in any respect. Khattak added that both these matters required a
two-thirds majority in parliament that the government did not enjoy, so people
trumpeting these issues should stop.
While the
atmospherics and reiteration of adherence to the agreed BNP-M six points is
positive, it should not be left to wither on the vine as has happened innumerable
times before, the latest being the first 10 months of the PTI government. Since
the common perception is that the PTI government and the military establishment
are on the same page, perhaps the bitter pill of an amnesty from prosecution of
those responsible for enforced disappearances may have to be swallowed in the
interests of news about, and the recovery of, the missing. If they have any
charges against them, let such individuals be presented in the courts and
allowed the right of a legal defence. Nothing would soothe the burning wounds
and hearts of the alienated people of Balochistan more than this gesture of
justice and reconciliation.
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