Murder in Quetta

It was clearly a target-killing. Shafiq Ahmed Khan, the Balochistan education minister and a PPP representative in the Raisani provincial cabinet, was in the sight of elements that are systematically playing havoc with ethnic harmony in the province, particularly since his loud protestations over the killing of Quetta's Commerce College Principal Mirza Amanat Ali Baig.
A number of teachers have been murdered in Balochistan over the last some months and he was very upset over these wanton killings. He would not hesitate in accusing "Indians and elements hiding in Afghanistan" for such killings, insisting that "since India increased the number of consulates in Afghanistan, troubles have enormously increased for us".
No wonder, within a few hours of the minister's assassination the Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), an underground outfit that demands independence for Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the killing. The said organisation had broken into the newspaper headlines early this year when it kidnapped UNHCR's local representative, American national John Soleki, but set him free two months later for his 'ill-health' - raising suspicions about the BLUF's real credentials.
What a tragedy; only last week the Balochistan Assembly adopted a resolution asking the Federal government to allow duty-free, bullet-proof cars for ministers. But the foregoing is only a part of the Baloch saga, replete with treachery and betrayal. Obviously, given more than half a century of broken pledges, the Balochs' faith in commitments and promises made by the Centre - in hindsight those appear to be more of fire-fighting than honest words - has worn dangerously thin.
The same trust-deficit tends to obtain even when after the present government in Islamabad has completed 18 months. One may ask what happened to Prime Minister Gilani's promise to abolish the Concurrent Legislative List? And how long have we travelled beyond what now appears to be the Senator Raza Rabbani-headed parliamentary committee's report on Balochistan? Of course, there is some forward movement on human rights situation in Balochistan, since the demise of General Musharraf's oppressive era.
But the wounds the dictatorial regime inflicted on the people of Balochistan are too deep to heal soon. That those raw wounds have the readily available potential to provide hostile forces the staple to fire up anti-Pakistan insurgency in Balochistan, there is no doubt about that. Of course since Prime Minister Gilani's meeting with his Indian counterpart at Sharm el-Sheikh in June, much more evidence of Indian interference has come to light.
But whether someone else too is fishing in these troubled waters we would not know, until the mystery of Jundullah is resolved. The ultimate solution to the ongoing Balochistan imbroglio lies within our own national borders. It is essentially a national issue that unfortunately has been allowed to fester for too long-long enough to encourage our adversaries to feast on.
Hope had stirred that with the advent of democratic era, things would change for the better for the people of Balochistan. But that did not happen, mainly because the focus shifted onto the war on terror and, consequently, the peace and tranquillity required to rebuild the badly fractured Baloch society was hijacked by anti-state elements. The elements' most potent weapon is an ethnic discord in Balochistan and they are using it extensively.
But surely the ferocity of their subversive activity notwithstanding, their chances of ultimate victory in their blood sport of target-killing is absolutely nil. The people of Pakistan can fight these elements with bare hands; by standing up to them, by displaying ethnic unity and social and sectarian harmony.
In the meanwhile, it is important that the concerned officials in Islamabad and Quetta move beyond the oft-reiterated intents and purposes outlined by various committees and commissions over all these years, and come up with tangible results. Something on the ground makes better image than the hot air of rosy promises.