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In Balochistan, democracy remobilises nationalists

Pakistan’s lawyers will begin a “long march” from Punjab province to the capital on June 10 to press their demand for the reinstatement of judges President Pervez Musharraf sacked last year when he imposed emergency rule.

Far away from the Punjab, virtually unreported by the media, another march is underway in the restive Balochistan province, where nationalist political parties are demanding “maximum autonomy” and the military poured in men and money in 2005 to battle a low-level insurgency for independence, often blamed on India.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal, a former Chief Minister of the province and leader of its largest political party, the Balochistan National Party (BNP), is returning home to his province after the new PPP-led government ended his18-month imprisonment. The charismatic politician was thrown in jail in November 2006 on terrorism charges just before the BNP was to set off on a “Lashkar-e-Balochistan” rally through the province against a visit by Gen. Musharraf, just three months after the killing of Akbar Khan Bugti in a military operation. Hundreds of others were jailed with him and the “long march” had to be called off.

When he was produced before a court for the first time, a representative of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan who had been asked to watch the closed door proceedings came away shaken — Mr. Mengal was produced in a cage-like structure with iron bars as if he was a dangerous beast. His journey to the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta from Karachi that began on June 1 and will end on June 9 recalls the cancelled November 2006 march.

The irony is that the BNP leader’s release on May 10 was part of the reconciliation process initiated in Balochistan by the new Pakistan People’s Party-led government. Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP leader, set the ball rolling immediately after the February elections with an “unconditional apology” to the Baloch people “for the atrocities and injustices committed against them” and pledged to “embark on a new highway of healing and mutual respect.”

But a three-year military operation in the province has left a huge trust deficit, along with hundreds killed, jailed, missing, and over two hundred thousand displaced. The PPP’s overtures to the people of the province have evoked at best a mixed response from political parties which want the federal government to spell out a concrete programme to resolve the Baloch question rather than making “piecemeal” announcements.

Moreover, the government has not yet fully delivered on its assurance that all political prisoners would be released — only a few, including Mr. Mengal have been freed — and the military withdrawn from the province. Baloch nationalist parties, which boycotted the elections, also cold-shouldered a PPP proposal for an all-party conference.

Now, the BNP chief is using his roadshow to underline continuing Baloch dissatisfaction with Islamabad. On Wednesday, in Hub in Sindh, Mr. Mengal demanded an immediate halt to military operations, the recovery of all missing people and the release of all political workers in the province. He also demanded that the government accept the right of the Baloch people to exercise control over their resources, pledging to resist federal control over the Gwadar province. .

BNP secretary-general Habib Jalib said the march was not against the present government, but was being undertaken to highlight the oppression wrought on Balochistan by the Musharraf regime. Sanaullah Baloch, the party information secretary, said Mr. Mengal’s roadshow and rallies were aimed at “remobilising and reactivating the people, and bringing them back to politics” after the severe clampdown of the Musharraf regime on all political activity not sanctioned by Islamabad.

Baloch nationalists want political autonomy. They want the right to shape their own policy and implement it, to have control on the rich natural resources of the state that includes natural gas and oil reserves, and control over administrative and financial affairs of the province. The BNP is a nationalist party that still believes it can achieve all this without breaking away from the federation of Pakistan.

The people of the province were waiting to see if the PPP-led government could make real reconciliation possible by coming up with “practical steps” to give them all this.

“We appreciate the PPP initiative, but releasing a few people here and there is not going to make any difference. The people have very bitter experiences from the past when such reconciliation efforts have not yielded any fruit. The reality is that it is not the political government that decides the policy on Balochistan. It is the military-civilian security structure, and the intelligence agencies. So people have decided to wait and see what the PPP can do,” said Mr. Baloch, who took his place in the Senate, the Pakistan’s parliament upper house only this week after an 18-month absence spent in self-exile abroad.

But with the activities of the shadowy Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) on the rise in the months since the new government took over, the chances of the PPP prevailing over the security establishment do not look that good.

Last month, 10 people were shot dead in three separate incidents in Quetta, with the BLA taking responsibility for the target killings. In all cases, the victims were “settlers” – non-Baloch people living in the province. In one incident, six boys of the Hazara community were shot dead as they played cricket in front of the Federal Investigation Authority’s offices. The BLA said they had been acting as spies for intelligence agencies.

In another development, Brahamdag Bugti, a grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, announced last week he had formed a party called the Balochistan Republican Party, and said it would support the BLA demand for independence.

Keen not to alienate the nationalists, the PPP has thus far adopted a laissez-faire attitude to the developments. Its Chief Minister in the province, Nawab Muahmmad Raisani, is a well-known figure of the nationalist movement himself, and was quick to exonerate the BLA for the target killings.

Analysts reading the tea leaves predict that soon the PPP will be pitted against the security establishment. The Daily Times said it could force a review of the PPP’s reconciliation strategy, and warned that “if that happens, we may well be thrown back to square one.”

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