The Way Out

Top politicians believe Balochistan’s problems can only be resolved by following the Constitution

QUETTA: The roots of all the various problems facing the country lie in the rulers’ lack of will to implement the 1973 Constitution in its true spirit. There is also a need for the powers that be to introspect and revive the confidence of the people in the state through dispensation of justice.

This was the gist of a seminar titled “National Dialogue on Reimaging Pakistan” organized on January 21 in Balochistan’s provincial capital by the Balochistan Peace Forum.

The seminar was attended by the country’s top politicians and lawmakers including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Senator Farhatullah Babar, former finance minister Miftah Ismail, Nawab Aslam Raisani and Nawabzada Lashakri Raisani.

Taking the podium, Abbasi, who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), lamented that there are no forums for discussing issues of common people as political parties have no interest in resolving these basic issues.

“Due to this lack of focus on part of political parties, these issues are mounting with the passage of time and the gulf between citizens and the state is widening,” he said.

Abbasi said other countries are progressing while the situation in our country is deteriorating as “despite remaining in government and opposition, we have failed to resolve our problems”.

He said the National Assembly and the Senate are the forums where issues of people could be resolved. However, he claimed, even the parliament fails to resolve peoples’ issues as people’s real representatives cannot reach the parliament.

“Here people win elections on the basis of pre-made lists and not because they got the greatest number of votes.” The former premier gave the example of a lawmaker who allegedly won a constituency in the 2018 election on the basis of 55,000 bogus votes.

He said the people who reach in the Senate – the upper house of the parliament – by spending millions of rupees have no interest in taking up people’s issues.

Referring to the missing persons’ issue, he said it was a failure of our justice system as the judiciary did not play its due role for the recovery of the missing persons in Balochistan and the rest of the country.

He said despite terrorism, the justice system continues its work in many countries and the court decides who is guilty and who is not on merit. “There is a need to run the country on the basis of the Constitution in order to protect human rights,” Abbasi added.

Balochistan former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani said the people of the province merged their four states into Pakistan at the time of independence for getting honour and respect “but Islamabad is not resolving our issues and abducting our youth and political workers.”

He said the establishment continues to interfere in political and administrative affairs of the country and the province. He asked as to why the judiciary is not taking notice of the disappearance of 9,000 young people and political workers in Balochistan.

The politician, who now belongs to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), said the economic situation of the country is worsening and yet there is a military operation under way in Balochistan. He demanded that the military operation must be stopped.

“They call us agents. Yes, we are agents of the oppressed people and the weak segments of the society and those who were talking about making the federation stronger,” Raisani said.

Miftah Ismail, who also belongs to the PML-N, said not only the people of Balochistan but the entire country are facing unemployment. “We need to work together to resolve these issues.”

He said over 80 million people are living below the poverty line. “Interestingly, we are spending Rs2,000 billion on education but have not been able to bring any improvement in our education system.”

Talking about mother and child health, he said 42% of women are facing iron deficiency which also affects the health of their children. “We must think about how to increase the minimum income of the people from Rs35,000 to Rs100,000.”

Former federal minister Khawaja Muhammad Hoti, who played a key role in organizing the seminar, refuted the impression that they are forming a new party. There are already around 100 parties in the country and there is no need to establish a new party, he said.

“The aim behind organizing this seminar is just to discuss the issue of the people that are not being taken up in the parliament.”

He criticized the “double standards” of the establishment which does not take any action against former premier Imran Khan when he uses abusive language against the army but detains Ali Wazir who is also a member of the parliament.

“In this situation fresh elections will not bring about a positive change. The country will face the same crises three months after the elections. Before the general election, we need to sign an accord in order to improve the economy and enrich society.”

Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said they have taken this initiative to discuss the real issues of the people “as our policies are struck up in Panama Papers and Toshakhana cases and we have no time to pay attention to the real issue.”

He said the country is going through serious economic and political crises and 70% of the young people want to migrate to other countries as they have become disappointed in the situation of the country.

Khokhar said the young people who cannot migrate to other countries may take up arms as they are being deprived of doing peaceful politics and are being illegally abducted for seeking their rights.

“Articles 8 to 28 of the Constitution are about human rights. If people are not getting their rights then it means that the Constitution has not been implemented.”

Khokhar said the people of Balochistan demand the return of their missing persons.

“It is the responsibility of the judiciary to protect human rights but our judiciary is silent. The missing persons’ issue must be resolved for enduring peace in the province.

“If this issue was not resolved then the country would face a big loss. Political parties should realize the sensitivity of the issue and play their role in resolving it,” he said.

Balochistan Peace Forum president Nawabzada Lashakri Raisani said the Balochistan Assembly has passed many resolutions to highlight the case of missing persons but the federal government has not taken any notice of even a single resolution.

“Our mothers and sisters traveled 3,000 km on foot and appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to help in recovering the missing persons but the court did not dispense justice,” he said. “The issue of missing persons could not be resolved despite formation of commissions and committees.”

He said the people of Gwadar, including thousands of women, were protesting peacefully but they were badly treated and their leaders were arrested. He also claimed that nothing was being done for the development of Balochistan.

Lashkari said the powers that be establish new political parties in Balochistan overnight in order to run the province through their selected people.

“Efforts are under way to muzzle our voices and to stop political workers from doing politics. If they are not allowed to do politics then these political workers may take up arms,” he said.

Senator Farhatullah Babar of the PPP said the majority of the people have become indifferent to the state as rights of the people are being violated. “It is a serious situation. We should think about how to restore the relationship between the people and the state.”

He said people are still abducted and mutilated bodies are being found in different parts of the province.

“When the judiciary and the state fail to bring back the missing people and when selected people reach the parliament as lawmakers then the relationship between the state and the people weakens. This relation could not be restored until those who violated the Constitution are not punished,” he added.