Protect the federation

A day after taking oath as the country’s 24th premier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the federal government’s relief package for those affected by the torrential rains in Gwadar. It’s good to see that an elected PM decided to visit Gwadar a day after taking charge and went on a maiden visit to a province that has been neglected for decades. We have seen that even when those in power hail from Balochistan, the province is not just neglected but sometimes those hailing from the region tend to take a worse line than those from other provinces on the issues haunting Balochistan. Some very recent examples easily come to mind – all of whom hailed from Balochistan but dared not question the state on its policies, especially when it came to the missing persons issue. Encouragingly, PM Shehbaz Sharif raised this issue in his maiden speech and we have heard the PPP leadership talk about the rights of the people of Balochistan as well.

Violence has been a perennial problem in Balochistan for decades now. And the aggrieved are many: Baloch people, the state, economic migrants in Balochistan. They all face one challenge: how to get rid of the violence, in its many faces, that seems unabated there – while the Baloch continue being neglected by the state. The Baloch also say that other than neglect there is a wilful discrimination by the state when it comes to the rights of the people of Balochistan. It is time now for our state and political class to heal these wounds. This disillusionment with the federation has not grown overnight. There is a long and unsavoury history that has led to the disillusionment of the Baloch youth and politicians from the state.

The situation in Pakistan’s largest and resource-rich province is extremely sensitive. During the PPP’s tenure in 2009, the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package was announced but it did not lead to the desired results. We have heard many times in the past that a dialogue with Baloch nationalist leaders can help the state win the hearts and minds of the disgruntled people of Balochistan and bring them back to the political mainstream for a peaceful future but then such calls die down without a squeak. Sarfraz Bugti as the new CM of this province is not an ideal start as there were many reservations regarding his politics. However, we hope that CM Bugti realizes there are many challenges facing his home province – from the missing persons issue to fixing the trust deficit between the people of Balochistan and the state. A good start would be to introspect oer how the state treated the Baloch protesters in Islamabad just a few months ago. If the state cannot address the grievances of the Baloch, the least it can do is hear them out rather than dismissing their plight in a heavy-handed manner. Silencing protest is not going to resolve any issue. The idea of Pakistan as a federation is not to dismiss the grievances of smaller provinces but to give equal rights and autonomy to all provinces.