Another killing in Quetta

Balochistan’s descent into anarchy and chaos continues with the assassination of well-known nationalist leader and senior official of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Habib Jalib Baloch, on the morning of July 14. Mr Baloch, who served as a senator and was a lawyer, was waylaid by attackers on a motorcycle and shot dead. According to one website, a group calling itself the Baloch Maslha Defaee Tanzeem, claimed responsibility for the shooting. The leader was popular in the province and was a significant voice speaking in support of greater autonomy for the province and hence his killing can only be interpreted as being carried out by those who wish to silence the voice of nationalism and dampen the ever-increasing calls for greater autonomy in the province.

Every day people are being targeted in the province — sometimes Baloch, sometimes Pakhtun, sometimes settlers from Punjab, and sometimes Shias or Sunnis. But the Balochistan government has completely failed in preventing the attacks from happening or in apprehending the killers in a single case. The ongoing cycle of violence, one has to say with considerable regret, is the logical outcome of the centre’s inability to put together any strategy to tangibly change the lives of the people of Balochistan or offer it greater say in matters that directly affect the province, especially the management of its vast natural and mineral resources. The only positive thing that has happened of late is that the province has benefitted from increased allocations from the divisible pool thanks to the new National Finance Commission award but even in that case the tangible benefits of this are not going to materialise any time soon. The people of the province are still waiting for the recommendations of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan – headed by Senator Raza Rabbani – which proposed various confidence-building measures and sensible decisions. Also, the missing persons’ controversy has yet to be resolved with hundreds of activists still missing and unaccounted for. Unless this complacency gives way to real urgency, the prognosis is not very good.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2010.