Balochistan in doldrums

Posted on 2012-06-03

Sectarian (pseudo) of whatever persuasion, blinded by his irrationality, doesn\'t (or cannot)
percieve the dynamics of reality-or else misinterprets it.
Paulo Freire

Recently, at the sidelines of a conference on Pakistan-Afghanistan-India Peace prospects, I got a

chance to meet some intellectuals, or rather pseudo-intellectuals as they seemed to me after
getting to know their views on Balochistan.
In a rather general mood of inquisitiveness that I noticed in the conference about the situation in
Balochistan, these pseudo intellectuals were adamant to toe their narrative of the events in
Balochistan. In a series of arguments with them their assertiveness of their take on the events at
times made me feel as if I was an outsider in my own province, where as I am the local of this
province.
The thing that further spoiled my mood and with it also my spirit of doing efforts of striking a
common that would serve as base for our further discussions was an article written by Arifa Noor
in an English daily. This article represented more of a Russian short story suffering from with
enigmatic characters and a contradictory plot. This article contained disjointed information on
the province, leaving us in a limbo as to what opinion we should make about the events stirring
in the province. She opines that the vortex point in the province i.e the issue of missing persons
is dissuaded after the suo motu notice of the Supreme Court. Her argument that the dust in
Balochistan has begun to settle after the SC involvement was proved frivolous within few hours
of the publishing of this article when four more mutilated bodies were found. As a resident of
this province, I wonder that can the Supreme Court be looked at as a Messiah for resolution of
Balochistan issue, when the Supreme Court is yet to take action on the targeted killings that the
city of Karachi witnessed, when the present CJ, hitherto deposed was visiting that on 12th of
May 2007. Now he visited Balochistan for the third time, and was seen yelling at the law
enforcers and Administrative chiefs. It is a fact that the lower Judiciary is blemished to an extent
that the law enforcers do not trust it for trying the insurgents that they present before the
judiciary. As there have been instances that these very insurgents have walked through the
judicial process not being convicted.
The way Supreme Court is carrying its business especially on Balochistan, at times compels to
believe in the authenticity of its spirit to make the things correct, but unreliability of its
impractical verdicts are also implicit.
The fact of the matter is that Balochistan is always looked upon as a step-brother by the powers
to be. The Laissez-faire way the establishment has always run the affairs of Balochistan province
has given birth to a lot of confusions. The so-called free media is also doing just the lip service
on the issue, and that too in a manner that is evidently flawed. Every night the anchor persons
turn up in the talk shows with their non-congruent ideas and loosely knitted arguments about the
future of Balochistan. With their flawed approach of extracting solutions of chronic problems in
single sittings, they are not doing justice to their professions. They try to find out solutions to
Balochistan problem by doing talk shows in Islamabad, it is an anomaly to many. They by
inviting irrelevant people on their talk shows, who are more concerned with putting forward the
official take on the issue, rather than discussing the ground realities, cannot relieve themselves of
the responsibilities that they shoulder as journalists.
Thus, Balochistan needs practical pacification, rather than political rhetoric. The administrative
arm of the government along with the civil society needs to strive for getting implemented the
verdicts of the Supreme Court. Pseudo-intellectualism for cheap fame should be discouraged
because it brings more harm, as it seeks to disrupt the public discussions on non issues. This is
mostly seen in the Urdu press. The game of missing persons and forceful abductions should
cease by now, and political solutions to the problem should be pragmatically worked out. Egos
should be put aside, and all stake holders should be invited to the discussions that are held for
deciding the future of Balochistan.
The situation in Balochistan is presently grim, because on ground the matters are handed over to
the law enforcement agencies which on many accounts are deemed as foreigners in the province
and on the political front it is left to the capricious lot of politicians with below average
capabilities and on intellectual front to the pseudo-intellectuals.