Pacifying Balochistan

Recounting his government's achievements in his Independence Day address to the nation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that implementation of the 39-point Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package, currently in progress, would address Baloch grievances.
He mentioned special relaxation in age and educational qualifications that is being offered to unemployed persons in the province so that they can get government jobs. Underscoring his commitment to winning over the Baloch people, he said: "a meeting of the federal cabinet was held in Balochistan recently, and ministers have been told that one of them is to visit Balochistan every week." These are all the right moves, but the concurrent policy of using force to quell dissidence is producing wrong results.
Indeed, many positive things have happened in Balochistan on the watch of this government. While passage of the 18th Amendment has met the longstanding demand for provincial autonomy - thereby resolving issues pertaining to royalty and control of natural resources - the new consensus formula for distribution of national resources has resolved the disputes over National Finance Commission Award. Also, reports indicate that the insurgency has lost some of its sting. That though is not because those fighting the federation have lost the will to resist, but because of Islamabad's efforts on the diplomatic front to improve relations with both the Kabul government and India. Consequently, there is reduction, however modest, in insurgency-related violence.
Yet the sense of alienation remains strong. The primary source of trouble at present is not denial of economic rights; it is enforced disappearances and military operations - something the federal government denies. The Prime Minister needs to break the vicious circle of violence that started with the Musharraf regime's policy of using force where peaceful means could have resolved the stand-off with Nawab Akbar Bugti. Countless people have gone missing since the trouble started, fuelling anger and dismay all across the province.
The difference between the government's stance and the Baloch claims has been about the number of the 'missing', not the problem itself. Yet nothing has been done to redress the situation. In fact, when the newly independent courts started taking notice of the 'missing', mutilated bodies of many missing Baloch nationalists, mostly youth, began turning up in different parts of the province. These suspected extra-judicial killings are at the heart of the ongoing unrest in Balochistan. It is a deeply distressing issue countrywide. A while ago, the province's Governor openly articulated his frustration, telling journalists no one listens to him in Islamabad.
The Chief Minister, who belongs to the ruling party at the Centre, has been expressing similar sentiments, saying if he gets the authority he can win over the angry Baloch youth. Although he did not specify, the Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech seemed to be holding out an olive branch to Baloch nationalists/insurgents when he said the government had decided to release all political prisoners not wanted in any other case. Declaring a general amnesty for political prisoners, provided they include the unaccounted for abducted and imprisoned Baloch Nationalists, will be a much-needed step toward Baloch pacification.