KARACHI: Political solution to Balochistan issue urged
By Latif Baloch
KARACHI, Feb 26: Speakers at a seminar on Sunday termed the ongoing military operation in Balochistan against the integrity of the country and urged the government to find out a political settlement of the problems.
Condemning the use of force against the political workers, they said it was creating bitterness among Baloch people. They urged the government to pull out its troops from that province and initiate dialogue with the Baloch leaders.
Quoting a statement of federal interior minister who admitted that 4,000 suspects had been rounded up in the province, they said that these arrests were made in total violation of human rights as their whereabouts were not being told.
The seminar, “Balochistan crisis: Military operation and human rights violation” was organized by the Karachi-based Baloch Unity Conference. It was chaired by Abdul Samad Baloch and key speakers were Senator Sanaullah Baloch, a senior leader of Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Yusuf Mustikhan, secretary-general of the National Workers Party, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, chairman of the Baloch National Party.
Senator Sanaullah Baloch attacked the government policy regarding Balochistan and Baloch people saying that “we are being treated as subject by the rulers in the same way the black people of Somalia and South Africa were treated.”
He said that the rulers instead of solving the problems of Baloch people resorted to use indiscriminate force against innocent people in Balochistan. He said: “What we want is nothing new ... the same rights being enjoyed by the people of other countries as guaranteed in the charter of the United Nations.”
Mr Sanaullah said that every nation had sovereign right over its resources. He said if Punjab could demand that its sweat water reservoirs should be reserved for its people, the same right could not be denied to the people of Balochistan who rightly claim that natural resources including its goldmine, gas and copper deposits of their province should be reserved for them.
The senator claimed that the government had never been serious in solving the problems being faced by Baloch people, saying that every successive government had tried to deploy more security forces in the province to suppress the Baloch people.
In support of his contention, he said that Balochistan had a population of 6.5 million people according to the population census of 1998 and there were 600 check-posts in the 28 districts of the province, meaning that three or four check-posts had been set up in each district. The Baloch leader said it was the total violation of freedom of movement guaranteed in the charter of the United Nations.
He pointed out that 35,000 personnel of Frontier Constabulary had been deployed since 1973 and 59 paramilitary facilities had been established. Arguing on the basis of statistics, he said that there was one armed man for 26 civilian people in Balochistan. He further stated that there were 14,000 teachers in the province meaning one teacher for 464 students. He claimed the funds being spent on the maintenance of security forces could have been used for construction of cadet colleges in the province.
The senator went on say that the Balochistan problem was not related to any particular Sardar. It was the problem of Baloch people, who wanted that exploitation of natural resources including coastal resources should be ended and these should be recognized as the national wealth of the province. He claimed that he was not against mega projects, but the government exposed its interests when it announced the construction of cantonments at the same time.
The senator suggested the government to declare Balochistan province a chemical and nuclear free zone, pull out its troops and recognize the Baloch’s right of self-governance on their land if it sincerely wanted to solve the Baloch problem.
Yusuf Mustikhan of the National Workers Party traced the political history of Balochistan and subsequent developments which led to the accession of former Kalat state union into Pakistan. He accused the Pakistani rulers of not fulfilling pledges made to the then ruler of Kalat. He claimed that Pakistani rulers had agreed that Balochistan would be granted a sovereign status in the federation of Pakistan where the central government would have only three subjects: defence, currency and foreign affairs and remaining subjects would be given to the federating units.
However, he regretted that the autocratic rulers did not honour their pledges and alleged that the Musharraf government was serving the interests of the US imperialism.
However, he disagreed with the contention of some leaders who had opposed negotiations. He said all political issues were negotiable and these should be solved politically. In this regard, he recalled the events of the Vietnam war, which had solved through negotiations.
Yusuf Mustikhan also stressed the need for a broad-based political forum to strengthen the ongoing Baloch resistance movement. He said the present crisis could be resolved by recognizing the sovereign rights of Baloch people.
Other speakers of the seminar were MPA Rafiq Engineer of Pakistan People’s Party, Mubarak Baloch of NP, and Sher Mohammad Baloch of JWP. They condemned the military operation in Balochistan and urged the government to find out a political solution to resolve the issues.
