Search for way forward: Talks in progress to heal Balochistan wounds

NA special committee to negotiate with all stakeholders to resolve the crisis.

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government has failed to address the biggest conundrum in Pakistan at present: the Balochistan crisis.

However, the government on Friday assured the National Assembly of its sincerity to solve the issues faced by the people of Balochistan, saying that a special team was negotiating with all stakeholders of the restive province.

“The government is committed to bringing the people of Balochistan into the mainstream of national uplift, and believes in resolving issues through dialogue,” Parliamentary Secretary for Cabinet and Establishment Division Khurram Jahangir Wattoo said, referring to a meeting of the cabinet’s special committee in Quetta.

The committee has been tasked to find out the reasons for the breakdown of law and order in Balochsitan and make recommendations on the way forward.

Wattoo said the committee, headed by Defence Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, held a series of meetings with all Baloch leaders in Quetta. Government representatives also met with former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, when he made his first appearance in the Supreme Court on September 27.

Though the matter was raised through a question over the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package, the opposition capitalised on the opportunity and triggered a debate that ultimately led to an unceremonious adjournment of the proceedings in less than an hour.

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was denied the opportunity to speak on the issue when MNA Nawab Yousaf Talpur – presiding over the proceedings in the absence of the speaker and her deputy – surprisingly adjourned the session.

When Wattoo informed the house that the government had implemented 42 of the 61 proposed actions in the package, PML-N lawmaker Tahmina Daultana remarked, “FC [Frontier Corps] is under the control of Balochistan’s chief minister [Nawab Aslam Raisani, who mostly resides in Islamabad], and tell me how many days does he stay in his province and holds meetings?”

“The Balochistan Assembly put this question to its chief minister,” was Wattoo’s reply. This prompted Daultana to once again censure the government over Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira’s recent statement that the government was ready to withdraw the FC from Balochistan, only if PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif took the responsibility of resolving security issues in the province.

Even PPP’s own parliamentarian questioned the government’s commitment to resolving the crisis. “The problems of Balochistan cannot be resolved through mere discussion during the question hour … is the government sleeping [over the issue]?” Syed Nasir Ali Shah said.

Responding to the reservations, Information Minister Kaira recalled an apology tendered by President Asif Ali Zardari to the Baloch people for the “excesses of the past”. He said all political parties would have to play their role for lasting peace in the province. “Withdrawing the FC is not the solution,” he added.

Economic and political policies

Wattoo also briefed the house on a number of policies implemented in Balochistan, including constitutional, administrative, political and economic.

He said the government had implemented Article 153 of the Constitution [Council of Common Interests] and Article 160 [National Finance Commission Award] through which Balochistan was given Rs93 billion, and then Rs114 billion in 2010.

Wattoo added that the province would be given 250 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) out of a total of 750 mmcfd as royalty in the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2012.