Starting afresh in Balochistan

[Pak_Army]

The government’s announcement to stop work on cantonments in Balochistan is welcome. However, if not supplemented by sincere overtures that go beyond the scope of slimming down military muscle in the province, it runs the risk of becoming a sop.

The province’s grievances are manifold and the patience of its people long exhausted as evident from the simmering resentment all over Baloch and Pakhtun territories. More so in the barren Baloch swathes where the state has embarked on a martial policy to deal with an active insurgency.

Calling a halt to cantonments will address concerns that the state is out to stifle the demand for provincial autonomy and turn Baloch areas like Kohlu and Dera Bugti into garrisons.

The fear is based on the long history of military operations in the province and the role of the army and paramilitary forces in crushing the ongoing insurgency. But there are other sticking points that will keep relations between the centre and the province sour if not addressed simultaneously and sincerely.

The trust deficit is perhaps why the Baloch nationalist leadership has approached the move of discontinuing cantonments with caution. This watchful response is rooted in repeated failure of different governments to back lofty claims with action.

More importantly though, it flows out of recognition on part of the Baloch leadership, legitimate or not, that selling out to the state is no more an option.

The Baloch insurgency has taken on a life of its own. And while the nationalist old guard, dead or alive, still act as the fountainhead of resistance with their sacrifices a source of inspiration, it is the Baloch youth that is in the vanguard of the insurgency. While in the past, the leadership was amenable to talks and reconciliation, an increasingly estranged and radicalised youth including women now call the shots.

Also in the past, the centre benefited from rifts between feuding tribes and sardars, playing one off against the other to weaken their stance. Not anymore. The veterans have passed on the baton to a zealous young leadership.

The recent arrests and deaths at the hands of paramilitary forces have seen Baloch poets and academics involved in protests and an upsurge in middle-class support for the insurgency, which was not there before. No wonder there is a sense that the Baloch struggle has entered a decisive stage and that there is no turning back.

An example of the youth’s contribution to the insurgency is the masses of blogs and YouTube videos of eyewitness accounts and news stories on the Internet even as there is a firewall raised to block the media, especially foreign journalists — a move that keeps Balochistan absent from the national debate and therefore consciousness.

Baloch websites stay restricted and popular newspapers like Asaap, Balochistan Express and Azadi that are the only source of Baloch opinion are harassed or shut down by the state machinery.

This gagging of the local media is alarming when one considers that local opinion is hardly ever carried in the national media — the print media did not consider the news that the FC fired on women and children in a protest gathering in Tump as newsworthy. Even in the electronic media, coverage comes from experts on the province not representative of local sentiment.

For resistance at the grassroots — no Pakistani flags flew on Baloch houses on Independence Day while schools have stopped singing the national anthem — the leadership has to flow with popular sentiment or run the risk of becoming irrelevant, or worse, be seen as a traitor to the cause.

The pressure on the Baloch leadership to play it right this time is immense. For it to come around to reconciliation, the government and the establishment must recognise this and take on a similar pressure to deliver. The state must know that there is little room for error and it must appear sincere both in intent and action.

Islamabad has long known the demands but played ignorant by sending in parliamentary committees to study Baloch grievances — there have been four over the last few years that have made clear recommendations in terms of provincial autonomy and the control of resources including Gwadar Port, the release of political prisoners, fiscal award, the matter of the disappeared people, inquiries into the deaths of Baloch leaders, etc.

The issue is not that the authorities do not know what needs to be done but that they are not doing what they have long known.

For any solution to work, dialogue with the local stakeholders is a must. As things stand, there are no negotiations with the local leadership or a hint on how that will happen. Also absent from the equation are the Baloch Liberation Army and Baloch Republican Army, groups that are in the forefront of the struggle against the state.

Not taking the Baloch into confidence through a local or national dialogue but announcing packages that may not enjoy consensus only goes to show how muddled and ad hoc the government’s policy on Balochistan is.

There is also a need to take confidence-building measures while moving on matters of immediate concern to the province. Major allowances made to address the issue of Baloch deprivation would seem hollow if street temperatures stay high due to a clampdown on the media, bombings, firing on protesters, harassment and detention of the Baloch, highhandedness of the law-enforcement agencies and the worsening law and order situation.

The government’s decision to provide amnesty to political prisoners, exiles and those accused of anti-state activities will send a positive message to people in the street where resentment has the potential to scuttle the spirit of any government initiative, however genuine.

Once the amnesty takes effect and the process of release and return kicks in, the government needs to start anew the process of political integration that stalled after the Baloch and Pakhtun leadership boycotted the recent elections.

The fact that there is no genuine political representation from the province at the federal level — the little that was there has resigned to protest against the callous and coercive policies of the centre — has only reinforced the alienation of the province and its people from the national mainstream.