EDITORIAL: Speaking at a special session of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security soon after the terrorist attack on the Jaffar Express, Army chief Gen. Asim Munir had posed a rhetorical but profound question, “how long will we continue filling governance gaps with the blood of our armed forces and martyrs?” That seems to have spurred Baluchistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti into action.
Presiding over a meeting of the Secretaries Committee on Tuesday, he said poor governance empowers anti-state elements making its prevention crucial for the province’s stability. He directed officials to ensure meaningful development with emphasis on public welfare, adding that government officers must be willing to work in remote areas under challenging conditions to ensure service delivery. The CM also announced plans to create employment opportunities through the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in collaboration with the private sector.
That is all every well, but it won’t end the Baloch people’s sense of alienation from the Centre caused by denial of economic, political, and human rights. Since the country’s independence Baluchistan has engendered four armed insurgencies while the ongoing fifth one erupted in 2006 with the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti intensifying during the recent years and months. Yet instead of making sincere efforts to address root causes of the trouble the state response each time has been the use of force to eliminate the ‘trouble makers’. In the last nearly two decades, it has been doing the same thing over and over again, producing the same results: disaffection turning into more disillusionment and anger towards the Centre. This has provided external inimical forces with opportunities to hit at Pakistan’s vulnerabilities. At Tuesday event while iterating that those destabilising the country will not be tolerated CM Bugti also hinted at resolving the prevailing situation through dialogue. Given the brazen BLA attack on Jaffar Express that claimed 31 lives, some sort of kinetic action is inevitable. But the use of force alone will not work; it will further reinforce estrangement that, going by JUI-F leaders’ recent pronouncements in the National Assembly, is pervasive in five to seven districts of the province.
There is need for a candid conversation among all stakeholders as to what has gone wrong and what the way forward is. In an encouraging sign, PPP Chairman Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari has asked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to call another meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, including those parties that skipped the earlier one, to which the government has responded positively. The PTI has indicated its willingness to attend. But equally, if not more important, is the presence of Baloch nationalist leaders like the former chief ministers Akhtar Mengal and Dr. Abdul Malik. Though not in Parliament, they are highly regarded as genuine representatives of the Baloch people. Unlike the previous session after which the JUI-F complained of not being listened to, all participants must be given a patient hearing so as to help bring about national reconciliation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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