Towards lasting peace

Like the proverbial Nero fiddling as Rome burns, parliamentarians in Balochistan seem to be interested in nothing but their own self-aggrandisement. Rather than worrying about how they can assist in dealing with the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the province, they are simply demanding an end to governor’s rule and the immediate return to Balochistan’s former status. This argument over whether the chief minster should be restored to his position and governor’s rule ended is a distraction from the real issue: how the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s (LeJ) successful war on the Hazara Shia community can be countered and the role the military has played in the province.

It is not known whether the LeJ is being supported by the military right now but there is little doubt that the organisation is a creation of the establishment. The LeJ is a result of Zia-era policies, where groups like it were trained to fight proxy wars on the borders and this had sectarian repercussions at home as well. Since then, the establishment seems to have done nothing to atone for this. Instead of asking the relatively powerless politicians what they would do to protect the Hazara community and Shias in general, it is the military and paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) that need to be made answerable for their inaction in the face of this cleansing of an entire community.



The one answer that won’t pass muster is that the military does not want to get embroiled in internal conflicts. It is now, as it has been for some decades, busy fighting separatists in the province. On January 19, the FC killed two suspected members of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in a targeted operation. That same anger is nowhere on display against militants who have made it their mission to kill any member of a minority faith or sect. Both, the military and the FC, as well as the politicians, should now focus more on fighting groups like the LeJ so that people of all sects and faiths can live peacefully in the province, assured that their lives are not in danger.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2013.