Former prime minister and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has criticised the deployment of the military against tribesmen in Balochistan.
Benazir, in a statement, on Tuesday said the violence in Balochistan is a direct consequence of the imposition of military rule in the country, adding that each and every military rule in the country spawned secessionist tendencies.
"When the Constitution is suspended or altered against the wishes of the people and the provinces, Pakistan is weakened as the violence in Balochistan demonstrates", she said.
Benazir Bhutto said that General Ayub Khan's dictatorship culminated in the alienation of East Pakistan which led to the creation of Bangladesh. She said that the General Yahya Khan dictatorship resulted in the Baloch uprising which the subsequent PPP government had to deal with, and noted that following the killing of Quaid-e-Awam, Sindh was ready to secede but the PPP had rescued the Federation.
The PPP chairperson said that General Musharraf's military dictatorship has resulted in the use of the military in Waziristan as well as in Balochistan. She said that the use of force can only further alienate the people of Balochistan.
More worrying is the scorn that the Musharraf regime has been pouring on the provinces by insisting on violating water rights as contained in the Constitution, she said. She apprehended that if freedom, democracy, constitutional rule, provincial autonomy and people's rights were not restored, the trouble could spread further.
Benazir called for the formation of an immediate interim government of national consensus to hold fair elections and transfer power to the people and to the provinces to save the Federation.