Balochistan distress

Assisting a three-member Supreme Court bench as amicus curiae during Wednesday's hearing on petitions against kidnappings for ransom and targeted killings, former chief justice of the Balochistan High Court Amirul Mulk Mengal painted a bleak picture of the law and order situation in his province. The writ of the sate does not exist in Balochistan, according to him, and the provincial or the federal government have taken no steps to set things right. Schools remain shut, he went on, while basic facilities and employment opportunities for the youth are few and far between. The day he expressed these views, nine workers returning from Iran were attacked by armed men riding motorcycles in the border town of Mand Balo as they waited for a bus to Karachi. Three of the men, from Sahiwal and Faisalabad, were killed on the spot while the condition of two other is said to be serious. It was not the first attack of its nature. Punjabi workers returning from Iran via Balochistan have been targeted before. These slayings are to be seen within the wider context of the unrest in the province. But there have been several incidents in which members of the Hazara community have been killed by sectarian terrorists. There is a general breakdown of law and order. In his remarks during Wednesday's court proceedings, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry noted that Chief Minister Aslam Raisani was not taking interest in improving the conditions, adding that the situation had become very dangerous and that not only civilians but personnel of law enforcement agencies were also being targeted. As regards the issue of insurgency-related violence the Chief Minister has been complaining, not without justification, of lack of authority in talking to insurgents he refers to as the 'angry Baloch youth'. Nothing is stopping him from addressing the law and order situation. As chief executive of the province he has the both the responsibility and the authority to provide security to the public. He should have been able to grasp the gravity of the sectarian problem, for instance, when the first targeted killing of the Hazaras happened. No precautionary measures were taken. As a result, 29 people were killed in Mastung last September when a bus carrying Hazara pilgrims was stopped en route from Quetta to Iran and passengers ordered out to be gunned down. Three members of a rescue team were killed shortly afterwards. Another 12 Hazaras were shot dead two weeks later while travelling in a bus on a domestic route. The killings of Punjabi settlers and workers may not be stoppable until and unless the issues fuelling Baloch insurgency are settled. Yet after an earlier incident in which Punjabi workers returning from Iran were killed in Balochistan, the government ought to have ensured this did not happen again. A system should have been put in place for advance notice of such arrivals, and the arrived escorted out of the danger zone for onward journey home. As for the bigger issue, last month Prime Minister Gilani announced he would hold an APC on Balochistan. The idea seems to have fizzled out after the main opposition party, the PML-N, set two preconditions: One, that Akbar Bugti's killers should be brought to justice; and two, the missing persons be recovered. In any case, the situation can be best settled if and when the real stakeholders sit together to find a solution. In this regard, the CJ's suggestion to convene a jirga of all estranged Baloch leaders, including Ataullah Mengal and Khair Bux Marri, makes eminent sense. Hopefully, the Prime Minister will pay heed and talk to the relevant persons rather than holding an APC with assorted parties headed mostly by non-Baloch politicians. Copyright Business Recorder, 2012