The killings of two Baloch Students Organisation-Azad (BSO-A) activists in Khuzdar, last week, couldn't come at a more desperate time. The people in Balochistan were already in a furious mood in the wake of recent action in Lyari, by the law enforcement agencies; their anger, largely vindicated by the fact that as it turned out, the said action was uncalled for and the provincial government promptly disowned its authorship.
But as to who killed the BSO activists, their leaders accused the Frontier Corps (FC) on the day of the incident. This also rebutted by the paramilitary force. As the blame-game refused to die down, it got another life the other day, when Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani accused the FC of "running a parallel government in Balochistan".
The attitude of this outfit, he warned, is bound to harm the ongoing reconciliation process. The FC has again denied its hand in the killings, its spokesman insisting that "no FC personnel were deployed when the BSO rally was fired upon". We hope that as a result of the judicial investigation into the Khuzdar incident, the truth will come out soon and the guilty will be brought to justice.
But there are some other things that the Chief Minister put in his statement that need to be taken note of by the Federal government - for they essentially tend to suggest that the recently announced 'healing-broken-hearts' package does not seem to be sitting well with the Baloch leadership.
His assertion that there is nothing in the package to be elated about, 'because there was nothing important in it,' is neither stunning nor new, given the fact that underneath the huge burdensome 39-point reconciliation package, there is nothing much in terms of material change that the Baloch expected.
Of course, the army deployment has been restricted to much smaller areas and work on some cantonments stopped but the Frontier Corps still seems to be attracting the same flak of rejection. As a part of the PPP, which also rules at the Centre, doesn't it look strange for Nawab Raisani to say that bureaucrats in Islamabad are the biggest obstacle in the implementation of the Balochistan package?
But that is, perhaps, the reality, aptly highlighting the fact that all these big announcements and declarations, made by the Federal government, are not going to transform into a reality anytime soon. We would like to suggest that the Federal government set up a special cell that should monitor the progress on the implementation of the reconciliation package and periodically report to the parliament.
Nawab Raisani's annoyance at the FC's attitude deserves serious notice by the concerned authorities in the Capital. His neutrality is widely respected and must be reinforced given that he has been placed between a rock and a hard place by some weird circumstances. He has to contend with an array of hostile forces whose agendas, ranging from demand for provincial autonomy to complete secession from Pakistan, tend to generate anti-federation sentiments.
Therefore, when he says his government would not allow any agreements which - like the Gwadar Port management and Reko Diq project - "undermine the rights of the people of Balochistan," somebody in Islamabad should discuss matters with him without any further loss of time.
He also seems to be extremely upset over the mandate of the FC; therefore, his warning that the government in Islamabad must realize the gravity of the situation, "otherwise it would go from bad to worse, and he would not be responsible for that" needs instant attention by concerned quarters.