Balochistan: What needs to be done

At least the army, while preserving security and guarding installations, helps in development work, creating jobs.

An invitation to Sui in Balochistan is hardly tempting for a city dweller. And yet, I went. Sui is in the heartland of Balochistan, which is often in the news. Hence a visit, I reckoned, was overdue.

At the PAF base in Karachi, no one seemed to know the flying time to Sui. “Has no one ever made it?” I asked jokingly, but no one either smiled nor had an answer.

Once in Sui, we heard General Kayani tell an audience of notables that the army had come to help the provincial government complete several projects, implying that this task had been completed. As it was the wish of the people to not have a cantonment in Sui, he continued, so the projected cantonment had been converted into a military college. And because the people wanted the army to leave, so it would in three months. Again, in deference to the people’s wish, plans for four new cantonments had been scrapped. Besides, he said, in future no military operation would be conducted without the permission of the provincial government.

Kayani then announced that maintaining law and order in Balochistan would very shortly be the exclusive domain of the Frontier Constabulary (FC). The FC would be under the control of the interior ministry and the provincial government.

From my soundings of the audience, however, it seemed the people do not want the army to leave and the much-reviled FC to replace it. At least the army, they say, while preserving security and guarding installations, also helps in development work, thereby creating job opportunities. Besides, the army goes wherever it is needed, whereas the FC does not, as a rule, enter the areas controlled by the sardars, which is where problems mostly arise. Being a far more disciplined force, the army is more respectful of local mores and traditions than the rural rustics who make up the FC.

As for the Balochistan police, which controls the ‘A’ areas, comprising five per cent of the province’s territory (the rest are designated ‘B’ areas which come under the FC), one Baloch guest remarked that they are “unable to even control a four-kilometre-long segment of Sariab Road in Quetta”.

From what I heard, it seems that Balochistan faces three problems: The first is the mind-boggling incompetence of the provincial government. Just about everybody has his hand in the till.

The second is that the FC will be under the authority of the federal interior minister, with the provincial chief minister having a major say in its activities, which is akin to a death wish given their inability to make a success of any task with which they have been entrusted. Actually, say the locals, the corps commander, Quetta, will be calling the shots, as in the past, regardless of the formal hierarchy. So what’s new?

The third is that Balochistan does not need more autonomy, nor a fairer division of funds than is prescribed in the Constitution; or more money than provided for in the Balochistan package. However, what it must receive are the funds already promised and a lot more attention from Islamabad.

Messrs Zardari and Gilani have visited London and Dubai more often than Quetta. For them, Quetta, what to speak of Sui, may as well be on the other side of the moon. Likewise, why has the Sibi mela been scrapped? And why should a province which produces surplus power suffer long periods of loadshedding?

Finally, the issue of the missing persons has to be addressed. It is unconscionable for the state, whatever the peril, to deny a citizen a trial in court, regardless of the severity of his crime. On the other hand, those indulging in wanton acts of murder for a cause that has as its foremost objective Pakistan’s demise, cannot be allowed to succeed. We must engage the nationalists in negotiations, not because they are strong, but because we are stronger.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.