With democracy retuning to Pakistan after the end of Gen Ziaul Haq’s military rule, Baloch nationalist leaders formed political parties which promised to get more rights and larger autonomy for Balochistan through peaceful struggle. In the 1988 elections Akbar Bugti became CM of the province with a number of former student leaders occupying ministries or constitutional offices. The BNP(M) swept the 1997 elections and was able to form a coalition government in Balochistan with Akhtar Mengal as Chief Minister. With Bugti, Akhtar Mengal and Abdul Malik Baloch vowing to achieve Baloch rights through peaceful means , there was no terrorism in the province, no attack on outsiders or on the forces.
Things changed radically after Gen Musharraf overthrew an elected government in September 1999 and took recourse to use of force against those agitating peacefully for Balochistan’s rights. Within months, reports of forced disappearances started appearing. Hell was let loose when Bugti was killed in August 2006 and there were mass disappearances and extra-judicial killings of the Baloch youth. This gave a lease of life to insurgency that has continued to spread. The profiling of Baloch students in other provinces is also leading more young people to join the militants
The Islamabad High Court has taken a timely action to appoint a commission headed by the Senate Chairman to investigate the grievances of Baloch students. As Chief Justice Athar Minallah pointed out, it appeared on the basis of what had been observed during the proceedings that the grievances regarding racial discrimination, enforced disappearances and lack of response by state functionaries are not unfounded.
The real issue however lies in Balochistan
The suicide attack by an educated Baloch woman on Chinese nationals in Karachi has led some of the country’s senior politicians to ask the authorities to take the incident as a final wake-up call. PML(N) Senator Mushahid Hussain, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani and PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar have separately sought the resolution of the issue of missing persons at the earliest as a major confidence-building measure to end the sense of deprivation among the Baloch people. They were unanimous in saying that the solution to Balochistan’s woes lies in political dialogue and not military operations. One hopes the coalition government would to take up the issue with the establishment.
