- Hazaras targeted again in unstable Balochistan
He will not be blackmailed by the hapless Hazara community demanding that they will only bury their slain compatriots, killed in a terrorist attack in Balochistan Machh area, unless the prime minister personally comes to meet their demands. Even by Imran Khan’s by now-well known bent of mind such ego driven narcissist drivel was appalling.
The mineral rich and strategically located province has historically been treated as a national security risk and has therefore been controlled with an iron hand.
How could a down-trodden and miserable people -deeply traumatized as a result of their near and dear ones having their throats slit – blackmail the premier of the country? Adding insult to injury, Khan while speaking on the same occasion in Islamabad chose to lambast the opposition as well.
According to him by this attitude (of the protesters) anyone will blackmail the prime minister, including the “band of crooks”. Clearly referring to the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s current campaign to oust him he added that, “this blackmail is also going on for the past two and a half years.”
The prime minister, by making such inopportune remarks, unwittingly himself politicised the matter. If Bilawal and Maryam rushed to Machh to commiserate with the Hazaras, the fault lies with the PM for dilly dallying on the matter for leaving the field open for the opposition to fish in troubled waters.
Predictably, there has been widespread condemnation of the premier’s inopportune remarks by the politicians and on the social media. PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz has repeated her stance that the prime minister should have visited Machh immediately and by not going, has failed in his duty as the chief executive of the country.
She has posed an interesting question from Khan: “if this was due to obedience (tabedari), then the nation wants to know is obedience more important than people’s lives”? She obliquely accused the prime minister being driven by superstition.
Thankfully better sense has prevailed. The Hazaras demands were met in the early hours of Saturday and the funerals of the dead took place later in the day. The premier visited Quetta soon after to personally condole and listen to their grievances.
Of course, Khan’s no-show in Quetta was rightly criticized across the country. But to put the whole Balochistan problem on his plate is rather unfair.
Pakistan’s largest province has been a festering wound very since the country’s inception. Of course, the fault lies with our successive military strongmen as well as civilian rulers.
The mineral rich and strategically located province has historically been treated as a national security risk and has therefore been controlled with an iron hand.
Truly all kind of foreign based groups are operating here. For example, Daesh which for years has been targeting the Shia community, accepted responsibility for the Machh attack.
Our security establishment in the past has been in a state of denial about the extremist groups’ presence in Pakistan. Also, naively assuming that the so-called Islamic State has no truck with the Afghan based Taliban, rather they will emerge as each other’s rivals.
In a sense we are now faced with a double whammy. Th afghan Taliban attacks in Pakistan have continued unabated, while Daesh has become ominously active.
India’s active interest in Balochistan is now well documented. Indian spy Kalbhushan Yadav was caught red-handed from the province in 2016.
However, the dismal situation is not solely a function of foreign interference. An extremely flawed approach has exacerbated matters.
As a result, over the years Balochistan has become a national security province where military and intelligence agencies rule the roost. Civilian provincial governments are historically weak, corrupt and effete.
For example, in the aftermath of the Machh tragedy, the provincial government proved to be totally ineffective. The chief minister Jam Kamal was in Dubai, while his interior minister initially was nowhere to be seen. In ideal circumstances the chief minister should have handled matters better, but not so in Balochistan.
It is no coincidence that the present government was ushered in through political engineering and is composed of turncoats and pliant politicians. Balochistan Awami party (BAP) was created for this purpose.
Baloch leaders who have roots in the province are generally treated with disdain. Traditionally, most of these being nationalists are considered a security risk. Sardar Akbar Bugti, a moderate politician was assassinated during general Pervez Musharraf’s rule on his express orders for the sole reason that he was causing problems for the military regime by staking claims if the province’s natural resources.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal heading the BNP Balochistan National Party) was in coalition with the ruling (Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf). He left in disgust as none of his demands- most importantly recovery of missing persons- were ever met.
Undoubtedly the presence of the military in the province is also a stabilising factor. It has helped build schools hospitals and roads but governing is not their mandated role.
In this backdrop the present policy towards Balochistan has simply not worked. It needs an urgent reset.
For starters, the prime minister, instead of making it an ego problem not to visit Machh unless the Hazaras first bury their deceased loved ones should have ideally have taken the opposition along in order to evolve a cogent policy towards escalating wave of terrorism in the province.
He should also open negotiations with those political forces that really matter as well as other stakeholders.
But unfortunately, this is not going to happen. To expect Khan to come off his white horse and shed his knight armour will be asking for too much.
Similarly, the establishment will not outgrow its propensity to treat Balochistan as its backyard.
Old habits die hard. Hence the people of Balochistan will continue to suffer and the province will remain Pakistan’s soft under belly.
