By Saleem Shahid and Amanullah Kasi
QUETTA: Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani has accused the Frontier Corps of running a parallel government in Balochistan.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the chief minister said that FC’s attitude had harmed the ongoing reconciliation process and, as a result, the situation had worsened.

“The FC has established a government paralled to the provincial government,” he said.

He urged the federal government to direct law-enforcement agencies in Balochistan to work for normalising the situation and strengthening the reconciliation process.

The federal government, he said, should realise the gravity of the situation. Otherwise, he warned, it would go from bad to worse and he would not be responsible for that.

Meanwhile, a statement issued here on Wednesday by a spokesman for the FC said that the force had nothing to do with the killing of BSO activists.

“No FC personnel were deployed when the BSO rally was fired upon,” the spokesman said.

He welcomed a judicial inquiry into the killing of BSO activists.

Nawab Raisani said the killing would be investigated by a judge of the Balochistan High Court.

He said there was nothing in the Balochistan package to be lauded because there was nothing important in it.

The chief minister said that bureaucrats in Islamabad were the biggest obstacle to implementing the government’s decisions pertaining to Balochistan.

He said the forces which wanted to sabotage the process of reconciliation had to be discouraged.

Nawab Raisani said the federal government had rejected the scrapping of the Gwadar Deep Sea Port and Reko Dik project agreements. But, he said, the Balochistan government would not allow any agreement which undermined the rights of the people of Balochistan.

“This response from the federal government strengthens the elements who say that the centre is not interested in giving rights to the people of Balochistan,” he said.http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/13+fc-running-parallel-govt%2C-says-raisani-110-za-11

By Habib Khan Ghori in The Dawn, Jan 21
KARACHI: Several Sindhi nationalist parties frustrated by what they view as a ‘change’ in the Pakistan People’s Party’s original agenda have intensified their efforts to form a single platform to launch a joint political struggle for the rights of the province and its people.

Shah Mohammad Shah, head of the Save Sindh Movement (SSM) — part of a five-party alliance — and Saleem Jan Mazari of the Sindh Awami Alliance told a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday that they agreed to form the platform quickly and contest the upcoming local government elections jointly across Sindh. Pressing issues confronting Sindh were also discussed at length at a meeting held on Wednesday at the residence of the SSM chief.

The SSM groups together the Sindh Awami Tehreek, Sindh National Front, Sindh United Party, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party and Save Sindh Movement.

The meeting, they said, decided to bring other nationalist forces to the platform.

Mr Shah told journalists that several proposals on safeguarding the rights and interests of Sindh and its people were made by SAA leaders at the meeting and he would put up the set of proposals to a committee having representation of the SSM component parties for approval as the agenda of the proposed broader election alliance. The SAA leaders, he said, intended to convince leaders of all nationalist parties of Sindh to form such an alliance.

Regarding the perceived PPP policy shift, Mr Shah recalled that the PPP had been in the forefront of the Sindh-based parties’ struggle for the rights of the province before it reached the power corridors, but now it was subjecting the people of Sindh to excesses. The PPP, he said, had been opposing the greater Thal canal project for years while it was an opposition party but now when it was ruling over the country, it not only stopped opposing the project but also allocated Rs15 billion for the construction of the canal.

Salim Jan Mazari said water, Sindh’s rights over its resources and a fair census were some of the major issues confronting the province. “While wrong census figures have been registered with regard to the urban and rural population of Sindh, 60 per cent of the budget is being allocated to the 40 per cent urban population,” he claimed, adding that the 60 per cent rural population was given 40 per cent share in budgetary allocations. Double entries and omissions in the voters lists based on wrong census figures were also a major issue leading to the political exploitation of a majority of the Sindhi people.

He demanded that a fair census should be held under the supervision of the army and the judiciary.

In reply to a question, Mr Mazari said that “anyone living in Sindh is a Sindhi whatever his mother tongue may be.”

Welcoming the independence of the judiciary, the nationalist leaders lauded the Supreme Court’s recent judgments, particularly on the National Reconciliation Ordinance, and said this had rekindled the hope for the restoration of provinces’ rights.

Mujeeb Pirzada, Maqbool Shaikh, retired Capt Haleem Siddiqui, Irfanullh Marwat, Irfan Gul Magsi, Sardar Manzoor Panhwar, Sardar Ali Gauhar, Ali Mehar and Amanullah Talpur were among the others present at the press conference. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/13+karachi-sindhi-nationalists-intensify-efforts-for-single-platform-110-za-02

The walkout by two ministers from the Balochistan Assembly session on Monday in protest against the killing of two Baloch students at a protest rally in Khuzdar last week and condemnation of the killings by senators of both the treasury and opposition benches once again focuses minds on the plight of the Baloch. When the PPP government presented a package for Balochistan, a province that has been fighting for its rights since the inception of Pakistan, many termed it a historic step. Though the Baloch nationalists rejected the package and said that it would not bring about any change in the current situation, a broad swathe of opinion thought the nationalist leaders were being overly pessimistic. Now, however, it seems the ‘pessimist’ Baloch nationalists were right after all. This has been proved yet again by the incident in Khuzdar, where the people’s right to a peaceful protest was violated and brutally crushed. The use of brutal force by the Frontier Constabulary (FC) has not only alienated the Baloch further, it has put the federation of Pakistan at stake.

The ‘Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan’ package has failed to deliver on its promise. The military operation is still continuing, as are the kidnappings of Baloch nationalist leaders and workers. The government must ensure that the military operation is stopped, and the ‘missing’ persons the prime minister promised would come home, recovered. In this backdrop, the removal of some Baloch leaders’ names, including Ataullah Mengal, Akhtar Mengal, Khair Bakhsh Marri, from the exit control list (ECL) was a good gesture, albeit a small one. What is more shocking is Prime Minister Gilani’s comment that it was “news to me” that these people were on the ECL. We should be thankful for small mercies that the prime minister finally got this ‘information’ and acted upon it. If the chief executive has no ‘news’ about prominent names on the ECL list, one can only pray.

Despite the mention of Balochistan’s IDPs in the said package, the situation remains the same. We hear of humanitarian aid for the Swat and Malakand IDPs every day, but the Baloch IDPs are hardly ever mentioned. If this continues, the anti-federation sentiment would rise even more in the neglected province. Balochistan needs concrete steps to defuse the situation and engage the alienated Baloch rather than pie-in-the-sky ‘packages’.

For the past many years the Baloch have been waging a fight against the Pakistani establishment for their just rights. They have largely been asking for what has been promised to them under the constitution. Failure to fulfil this aspiration is the surest way to exacerbate separatist sentiment in the province. Instead of playing politics with such a serious matter, the government should deliver on its promises and not make a mockery of the Baloch issue. To ignore Baloch grievances is to run the risk of weakening the integrity of the federation. The Centre must pay heed to the disquiet ruling Balochistan. The government needs to have a dialogue with the alienated Baloch leaders, both in Pakistan and those living in exile abroad. The tension-ridden atmosphere of Balochistan should ring alarm bells for the government. Pakistan is already fighting a war with the Taliban and it cannot afford another war front against Baloch insurgents. The results of not delivering on the Balochistan package can be disastrous for the country. The government needs to get its act together or else get ready for another debacle.http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\01\21\story_21-1-2010_pg3_1