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Special Report on Balochistan - 3





Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Too many things going wrong simultaneously!
including governance; Raisani running admin like a personal fiefdom; regional, global forces get involved in power play; Chinese want to expand investment in Gwadar; US, others oppose

By Amir Mateen

QUETTA: The Balochistan conflict, at one level, happens to be the most complex issue in the country. A sectarian quagmire exists where the local Shia population, predominantly the Hazara community, is under constant threat by local Taliban helped by militant fanatics from as far as Punjab, Waziristan, to Kandahar and Khost in Afghanistan.

A whole gamut of Baloch nationalists from moderates to extremists are fighting for their rights — some against Islamabad, others against ‘Punjabi imperialism’ and still others against the Pakistan Army and the State. An underlying tension prevails between the Pashtuns and the Baloch over distribution of power, resources and territory; between Pakistani Pashtuns and their Afghan counterparts over business and turf; between nationalists and religious political parties and sometimes also between local militants and al-Qaeda. A tug of war also simmers between the settlers (read Punjabis) and locals; between secular and religious elements over lifestyle, not to forget between those who live in the cantonment and those who do not.

Add to this a nexus of smugglers of goods, arms and drugs; the land mafia that makes millions when people sell prime property for peanuts and criminals who take contracts for killing people for as little as a few thousand rupees.

The picture gets more complicated when regional and international forces get involved in this power play. A whole set of theories from the ridiculous to the sublime prevail about the classical ‘great game’ over the mineral resources of Balochistan. Enter the British, Americans, Chinese, Arab Sheikhs and all those jazzy players backed by multinationals that make James Bond movies so watch able. The only five-star hotel in Quetta presents a leaf from the classical movie, Casablanca, where every shady character is out to sell each other.

Some facts, however, belie the Hollywood scripts. The Chinese want to expand their investment in Gwadar by linking road and rail links for the cheaper energy and commercial supplies in future. “The Americans and many regional countries have a problem with that,” says PML-N’s Anwaarul Haq Kakar. “It’s quite possible that these powers are fomenting trouble in Balochistan.”

The same powers may have a problem with the proposed Iranian pipeline into Pakistan. The Afghan legacy is there in the shape of massive refugee camps. Replicas of Kandahar exist in Quetta’s localities of Nawankilli, Kharrotabad, Pashtunabad, Killi Khotik Chashma, and Killi Raiti Bulledi. “Kandaharis hold jirgas in Nawankilli as if they were in their own country,” says journalist Farhan Bokhari.

The mystery of the so-called Quetta Shura remains unsettled but the linkages of Balochistan with the war in Afghanistan and its impact on the provincial polity cannot be underestimated. Finally, the Indian footprints are all over. It is only in Quetta that one realizes the severity of the proxy war being played between India and Pakistan. If all this does not qualify as a momentous mess, then what does?

On another level, the fundamentals in Balochistan are quite simple. The conflict revolves primarily around four factors: The administrative (mis) governance in controlling the law and order; the political handling as opposed to the military solutions; a fairer economic development and its execution cutting across the corrupt ways of the Sardari system, and lastly the curtailment of foreign interference.

More simply, it boils down to just one-governance, without which the other three could not be executed. And that, sadly, is the weakest link in the Balochistan chain. “There is no governance in Balochistan,” said former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nawab Wazir Jogezai. “The province has been left to the rules of jungle.”

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani is extremely handicapped as he has feuds of blood running with, among others, the Rinds, Bugtis, Domkis, Jatois, Kalhois involving scores of murders taking place on each side. This makes his personal enmity stretching to nearly half of the Baloch tribes. The Interior Ministry put its foot down recently when Raisani sought the FC para-military troops to settle scores with former Federal Minister Yar Mohammad Rind, whom he accuses of murdering his father. The Nawab of Rinds, Yar Mohammad is one of the only two Balochistan opposition MPAs in a house of 65. Such is Raisani’s terror that ‘Rind’ has not come to the Balochistan Assembly after his oath taking two years ago.

Raisani is running the administration like a personal fiefdom. The chief minister, who is a former police DSP, is always keen to promote rankers as District Police Officers (DPO), some of them old colleagues. DPO Pishin Asad Nasir, DPO Nasirabad Javed Hashim, DPO Chamman Rauf Bareech, among many others, are rankers who got promoted on the whims of the higher authorities. Even the crucial post of RPO operations in Quetta has been given to a ranker, Hamid Shakil Sabir while many able regular officers have been sidelined as OSDs.

Taking the cue, most of the 60 plus cabinet have got the police officials down to the level of SHOs of their choice. This has messed up the entire administration setting into motion a wave of crime and sabotage. Former Inspector General Police (IG) Chaudhary Yaqoob is on record saying, “the political set-up is so weak that the law and order situation cannot be controlled.” IG Police Javed Bokhari, disheartened on political interference, left on a two-month leave for Canada that got extended to six months and his colleagues say he may not come back at all. Malik Iqbal, a highly respected officer, has been appointed as the new IG and it is yet to be seen how long he will survive. And this is just the beginning.

The police have no writ beyond a six-mile ring outside main cities. Over 80 per cent of Balochistan is what is called as “B-area,” which is the British legacy of running affairs through local tribes hired as levies. The Police Reforms of 2006 abolished the system by converging ‘B area’ into regular police administered ‘A area.’ This was a blow to the Sardari system through which they retained control in their areas. The Sardars in the Balochistan Assembly got a resolution passed against it. The process got stalled as a few Levies’ officers challenged it in the Services Tribunal. The issue is now believed to be pending in the Supreme Court.

The provincial government was quick to revert back to the old system. This may have contributed to the worsening of the law and order situation. Reports say that there have been cases of 12 murders in Jhal Magsi but none of them has been reported, as they will be decided in a jirga. This gives the local Sardar, in this case Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, the leverage to control people. “This has happening all over and the situation is worse in Dera Bugti and Kohlu,” confirmed a police source on the condition of anonymity.

This is how the Sardars not only influence the administration but also run a parallel judiciary. The proponents of the Sardar system may claim that in the absence of swift judiciary, the old system serves the purpose. But the fact remains the system has not been able to control the present law and order situation. Former Federal Minister for Law and Human Rights opines that the judiciary should see it as the case for parallel justice system like the Sharia courts in Swat and dispose off the matter. Till then, the crisis of governance in Balochistan continues to get worsen.

There is lots of clamour from the political class to get rid of the Frontier Corps troops from trouble areas. One hears numerous complaints about their over stretching their authority. Yet, military sources point out, it is on the request of the provincial government that the FC is involved in the security duties. “Given a choice, we would like to go back to the frontiers,” said the sources.

The provincial government has a love-hate relationship with the FC. The chief minister does not like it when the FC nabs his son in a case but wants it to perform security duties. “We may not like it, but imagine what will happen without the para-military,” says Anwaarul Haq. “The police alone cannot handle it”. Apparently, till there is a responsible police and administrative order, the FC is all that Balochistan appears to have got even though it is definitely not the ideal agency to handle the chaos that Balochistan has become. (Continued)

source: The News
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