Balochistan unrest: Malik asks Mengal not to play ‘blame game’
While Baloch chieftain Sardar Akhtar Mengal is unrelenting in his criticism of the military and the incumbent government, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has advised him not to play the “blame game”.
The PPP-led government has kicked off “serious efforts” to bring dissident Baloch leaders back to Pakistan and to address their “valid grievances”, Malik told a news conference on Sunday.
The interior minister blames “foreign powers” for stoking unrest in Balochistan and fuelling the separatist insurgency.
But Mengal doesn’t agree with him.
“Foreign elements, whom the minister blames for the insurgency, are only visible through Malik’s spectacles,” he said on Saturday.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the chief of Balochistan National Party, ended his self-exile last month and travelled to Pakistan to record his statement before the apex court in a case about the volatile security situation in Balochistan.
Mengal’s return and subsequent meetings with politicians is a good omen, but he should refrain from playing the blame game, said Malik.
“Sardar Mengal’s concerns will also be addressed, but no politician has the right to disrespect the Pakistani passport,” the minister said.
Mengal on Saturday said one doesn’t only become a Pakistani by possessing a national identity card or passport.
One of the six demands spelled out by Mengal for restoring normalcy in strife-torn Balochistan is an end to “all overt and covert military operations” in the province.
The interior minister, however, denied a military operation was ongoing in Balochistan. “Mengal is a senior politician, he should not defame state institutions,” Malik added.
“The Frontier Corps has been deployed in Balochistan to help maintain peace,” he said, adding that the paramilitary force was also deployed when Mengal was the chief minister.
Malik said the PPP has been the first to facilitate Mengal in returning to his homeland after years of self-exile when the interior ministry removed his name from the exit control list. “The disgruntled Baloch have to be brought back at all costs,” he said.
On the issue of enforced disappearances, Malik claimed that most of the missing persons have already returned home. He added that the commission constituted to investigate the matter was hearing cases according to the Supreme Court directions.
He said it was unfair to draw parallels between Megal’s charter and the six-point formula of former East Pakistan’s leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.
Responding to a query, the interior minister said he would appear before the apex court on October 3 to explain why he submitted a false statement in his dual nationality case.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2012.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
" the interior minister said he would appear before the apex court on October 3 to explain why he submitted a false statement in his dual nationality case "
Does it mean that Mr. Malik will submit reasons to Apex court to justify his previous false statements or the news report is wrongly worded ? strange things can happen in politics.& Pakistan.