Caretaker PM Anwarul Haq Kakar is from Baluchistan, but he seems out of sync with the protesters who were beaten and arrested last week, as they protested the continuing disappearance of their loved ones, as well as the killing of some in fake encounters. Mr Kakar claimed that those who had disappeared were terrorists and Indian agents, and challenged the protesters to go off and join the nationalists. He was apparently very casual in his flinging of serious allegations, and apparently did not see the paradox in his condemning Pakistani citizens unheard. The guilt or otherwise of missing persons is not at issue. The real issue is that they have not been produced before any court. Even RAW spy Kulbhushan Yadav was tried and sentenced for espionage, and was not condemned just because someone said so. Yadav, interestingly enough, was caught in Balochistan, and given a facility denied to citizens, that of being produced in court. The organizers of the March, the Balochistan Yakjehti Committee, has called for a countrywide strike on Wednesday (today) to highlight the issue.
The Supreme Court is also seized of the matter, though the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Qazi Faez Isa, was emphatic that the missing persons of Balochistan should not be confused with disappearing politicians or journalists, who were mentioned by the petitioner’s counsel. He referred to his own experience of the issue as Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court, when hearings were held every week and recoveries made. The petition said that 2200 people were missing, and still had not been produced in court.
The government does not seem inclined towards resolving the issue, perhaps because producing the detenus in court would prove embarrassing for those who ordered the arrests. The Supreme Court has been plugging away for decades now, but the matter is not closer to a solution. While Mr Kakar seems inclined to toe the line that spares the blushes of certain showy figures, both he and those figures should ask whether the potential embarrassment to certain officials is worth risking the integrity of the federation. Mr Kakar may be indulging in some local Baloch politics, but as an ethnic Pashtun he should not be trying to inflame Baloch opinion as he has done. If he had shown moe empathy, he would have gone much further in combating the Nationalists. As it is, the will only need to point to his statement to show how Islamabad thinks of the Baloch.
