Is this proper easy to be punished for something you haven’t done? Absolutely not! It seems too hard, actually it is hard and so difficult to bear these whole. But painfully it hurts to hear that our Baloch drivers are facing punishment. They are under the fires and suffering starvation, in fact, they are dying. This is just because of waiting on the Pakistan- Iran border, they are there for more than 15 and 20 days, and their food and water last due to which they die. On the other hand, check posts have been increased on the ways of the Pakistan-Iran border and also the small hotels which are present on the way have been closed by the authorities. How hard it is to face such situations, initially, 2000 Zamyads could get the tickets to cross the border but now just 400 Zamyads can get the tickets to cross the border. The remaining Zamyads wait for more than 15 days till their time comes because of this they face shortage of food and water and many of them can die. Recently, four drivers have lost their lives because of hunger and thrust on the Pakistan-Iran border. One of them was Fazal Baloch who was from Turbat, and he was working for Rs18, 000 per month. According to the reports he left his house on March 30 and went to the border. Till 15 April he was there, within a few days his food water got finished, later on he died. On the same day three more drivers died. At that moment more than 12,000 Zamyads were there but still they did not get anything from them. Also they were in the same conditions and their food and water lasted. Therefore, four drivers died. Their families have gone on strike and requested the chief minister to ease the restrictions but yet no changes appeared. The major reason which compels them to go on the Pak- Iran border is unemployment. They are jobless which forces them to face hardships. If they were in a job then they didn’t go for that. Also the border trade union in Turbat had requested the chief minister of Balochistan to ease the restrictions and to decrease the check post which are barriers for them. The minister has the power to finish these all and to help them cross the border.
Mahtab RafiqÂ
Turbat
