Sankar Ray
The third time prime minister of Pakistan Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif takes on the yearning with a grit for a new Pakistan, which is very different from the dazzling-but-vacuous concept of ‘Naya Pakistan’ of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan. The very choice of National Party leader, Abdul Malik Baloch as the chief minister of Baluchistan — a much-respected leader, for whom over 120 NGOs appealed to the new PM for leading the troubled Pakhtun province — deserves praise. Columnist Nasser Menon, too, emphasised the imperative for building anew the poverty-stricken (but rich in mineral resources) province, which has for many years “remained a tinderbox, with hundreds of people brutally killed in an orgy of extrajudicial murders and targeted shootings. The state had virtually abdicated the province and left it at the mercy of an assortment of militant outfits and corrupt politicians.”
But the province possesses rich natural resources – minerals, natural gas and coal, aside from fisheries and tourist spots – although it contributes less than 5 per cent of national income, while its provincial income growth averages at 2.7 per cent. All this notwithstanding, most of the people of the province constitute the ‘wretched of the earth, subsisting below the poverty line.’
Against this gloomy ethno-economic scenario, the new Pakistan is set to emerge in Baluchistan braving tendentious terrorism of a section of extremists belonging to the Baluchistan Liberation Army, whose state of nervous breakdown was reflected in the blasts at the Bolan Medical Complex in the Baloch capital Quetta on 14 June, killing at least 19 women including 14 medical students and the deputy commissioner plus four security personnel through a remote controlled bomb, detonated aboard a bus parked in the parking lot of Sardar Bahadur Khan University.
The Taliban imprint in the violence was unmistakable for two reasons – targeting women medical students as Talibans are against modern education for women and demolition of a portion of Quaid-e-Azam’s Residency in Ziarat. It was razed to the ground by grenades and bombs and the guard protecting it laid down his life at the hands of BLA terrorists. Mohammed Ali Jinnah stayed there in the fag end of life when he was fighting the terminal cancer. The Baloch government sagaciously laid assurance for rebuilding the demolished portion within three months in sync with the growing recalcitrance towards internal violence. The Pak people are sick and tired of ‘Political Islam’, which thrives on externally inspired terrorism. It’s not the first time Pakistan confronted forces that are for ‘development of underdevelopment’, which ceased to be an endemic Latin American or African phenomenon.
The reaction against the BLA’s act was somewhat unprecedented, particularly, the siege before the Bolan Medical complex until the arrival of security. Pat came the statement from Mian Sharif, appealing the Baloch to remain brave in the face of such devastating tragedy. The national interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Monday came out with a firm statement on the determination to take up burst out over Baluchistan issue, while expressing shock over how the entire security apparatus, along with security agencies, could not put a curb on terrorism in the restive province. The Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, too, blasted the security agencies with sarcasm that they could “find a needle in a haystack but still the law and order situation continues to remain in a poor state.” Achakzai’s brother, Muhammad Khan Achakzai, an economist and a former bureaucrat, is the new Governor of Baluchistan, where PMAP, with 11 legislators, is the single largest party in the Baloch provincial assembly. The party carries the heritage of Badshah Khan.
The BLA has been blasted by the chief of the banned group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hafiz Saeed, who in an interview to the Press Trust of India, said that extremist activities within Pakistan are not “jihad.” Militants, he asserted, should not carry out attacks in the country as “militant activities in Pakistan do not fall in the category of jihad. I appeal to all jihadi organisations not to carry out attacks inside Pakistan, as it is not jihad (holy war). America and India are taking benefit from their activities.”
Baluchistan is the largest province of Pakistan, also comprising 44 per cent of the country’s total land mass. For Mian Nawaz, it is a construct-or-perish situation and this challenge is beyond partyocracy. It seems he too has embarked on this unknown and unchartered trajectory. Freehand to Malik is its symptomatic impress. He too seems prepared to face the complex conundrum with a straight bat, unlike even the PTI chief, who is more theatrical than hitting balls like a true cricketer. Which is why Malik, in his first statement after taking oath as the 14th Chief Minister of Baluchistan, called for abolition of secret funds.
The other decision was his effort to find out missing persons, bullet-riddled bodies and kidnappings for ransom. “I am sure we will definitely sort out the issue if it happened,” said Malik, deploring that Baluchistan was aflame with almost every educational institution in a mess. At the same time, he appealed to the Baloch armed groups to take part in a dialogue for the betterment of the province. The terrorism has a socio-political aspect and hence it needs a political solution, not a military one. High rate of unemployment and poverty which could not happen had its natural resources – were judicially utilised with resources generated, distributed equitably even to some extent.
If there is an about turn from the escalating chaos with crumbling infrastructure in the south-western province, the seeds of new Pakistan will be sown. But there is a deterrent too. The PPP government handed over the strategically important Gwadar town to China, which has a blue print for upgrading the Gwadar Port. The Chinese motive is to mint high profits, not generation of jobs. (IPA)
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