By Saleem Shahid
QUETTA, Sept 7: In a move that might lower political temperature in strife-ridden Balochistan, the government on Monday said work on setting up cantonments in the province was being put on hold.

Disclosing the major move, the Balochistan chief minister said a formal announcement about abandoning the construction of cantonments and several relief measures would soon be made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his visit to the province.

The cancellation of the army’s decision, taken during General Musharraf’s days, to construct military garrisons in Bugti and Kohlu areas had been one of the principal demands of the Baloch nationalist groups, which always saw in the move an attempt to subjugate them.

The announcement made by Chief Minister Aslam Raisani in Quetta is being viewed by observers as a major concession, but the news broke so late that immediate reaction of Baloch nationalists was not known.

Nawab Raisani told a group of journalists that after much deliberation the federal government had accepted their demand to abandon the cantonment project. He said that all political parties and people of the province had reservations about the construction of military cantonments in Balochistan. “All parties have the same stand on the cantonment issue,” he said.

The decision to set up cantonments in Dera Bugti and Kohlu, taken at the height of the controversial military operation against tribesmen, had immediately come under criticism not just by the Baloch nationalist groups but also many human rights and political organisations.

The move was described as an attempt to suppress the Baloch nationalist movement, and their demands for share in natural resources and more political power for their province.

The late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was among the first prominent leaders who opposed new cantonments in the province. Even in the previous Balochistan assembly all mainstream Baloch and Pashtoon nationalist parties and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam had opposed the plan.

Even in the past, many Baloch leaders had questioned the decision of setting up cantonments in resource-rich Kohlu and Sui towns of Balochistan.

The secretary general of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Mushahid Hussain Syed, recently claimed that after negotiations Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti had agreed to allow new cantonments in Balochistan. However, Nawabzada Jamil Bugti denied the claim and termed it “rubbish and lie”. He said his father had never agreed to allow new cantonments in the province.

He said that he himself was part of the negotiations in which Nawab Bugti had told Mushahid Hussain and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain that they should not come to Dera Bugti for talks if they had no mandate.

Jamil Bugti said that this father had insisted till last that Pervez Musharraf rescind the decision.

Chief Minister Raisani said that various problems had cropped up in the province due to the plan for setting up new cantonments, and the provincial government had been telling Islamabad to persuade the army to abandon the project.

In view of requests made by the provincial government during meetings with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the federal government had decided to abandon the plan, Mr Raisani added.

“Prime Minister Gilani will soon visit Balochistan and will announce a special package,” Nawab Raisani said. Although the chief minister did not give details of the proposed package, he said the provincial government had also taken up the issue of Gwadar port with the federal government. He said the federal government had been requested to hand over the port to Balochistan so that its people could become major beneficiaries of the project.

Highly-informed sources told Dawn that the Balochistan package, prepared by a high-level committee under Mian Raza Rabbani, had proposed several wide-ranging measures which might go a long way in meeting some of the major demands of Baloch nationalists. These not only include the cancellation of plans to construct cantonments away from the border region, but also about giving due share in natural resources to the province.

There is a proposal to allow the province to have complete financial control of Gwadar port for at least 10 years. During this period the revenue from the port will be spent on development of Balochistan. Another proposal is for manifold increase in the share in revenue from copper mining at Saindak.

Several other key measures have also been suggested to bring the disillusioned political and nationalist groups to the mainstream. These include engaging some senior Baloch leaders by the political leadership, with the promise to meet most of their demands as long as they agree to distance themselves from separatist politics.
( the above news item appeared in The Dawn, Karachi, Sept 8, 2009)