Balochs demand autonomy, control over
resources
Terence j Sigamony
Islamabad—Balochistan Ministers and Member Parliament said that debates, speeches, and packages are no solution to the excesses committed with
the people of Balochistan for last 62 years the government still has time to save the country from dismemberment and give Balochis their rights.
During the debate on the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package on Wednesday during at joint sitting of the parliament Senator Abdul Malik Baloch
said the process of kidnapping still continues in Balochistan. He said, “we have the right to fight for our rights. We demand that Balochistan land be
given back to the provincial govt we would not compromise on our rights.”
He said, federal institutions must change their attitude and come out of the caste system. He said 28 districts of Balochistan are below the poverty line.
He said this package means nothing until talks with Baramdagh Bugti are held, Pervez Musharraf should be declared killer of Akbar Bugti and our
resources should be given back.
The Baloch MPs also demanded general amnesty for all the Baloch politicians and full control on their resources.
Senator Mir Mohabat Khan Marri of PML disagreed with other Baloch leaders and stated that the situation in Balochistan was not alarming and said that
the emotional speeches had caused damage to the Baloch youth in the past as thousands of them had gone to Afghanistan to fight against Russia and
lost life. The youth in the province now did not have faith in their political leadership and the provincial government. Their main concern was the
increasing unemployment. Senator Abdul Rahim Khan Mandokhel of PKMAP appreciated the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan but said that it needed
sincerity for the implementation.
“The basic issue of my province was constitutional and political,” he said. Provinces should be given complete control on their own resources. Jan
Mohammad Khan Jamali, Deputy Chairman Senate, said courage and determination required to solve Balochistan issue. It was good that Package was
tabled in the joint session. Pointing out the gravity of Balochistan situation, he remarked that in the month of December East Pakistan was separated
due to wrong policies.
He demanded that Senate elections should be held direct and the province be given complete fiscal power. He warned that Baloch youth were ultra
nationalists therefore it was difficult to control them by mere promises and statements. He remarked “for visible change in Balochistan many executive
orders were needed. He urged the government to hold talks with dissident Baloch leaders like Khair Bux Marri and Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti.
http://pakobserver.net/200912/10/news/topstories14.asp
resources
Terence j Sigamony
Islamabad—Balochistan Ministers and Member Parliament said that debates, speeches, and packages are no solution to the excesses committed with
the people of Balochistan for last 62 years the government still has time to save the country from dismemberment and give Balochis their rights.
During the debate on the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package on Wednesday during at joint sitting of the parliament Senator Abdul Malik Baloch
said the process of kidnapping still continues in Balochistan. He said, “we have the right to fight for our rights. We demand that Balochistan land be
given back to the provincial govt we would not compromise on our rights.”
He said, federal institutions must change their attitude and come out of the caste system. He said 28 districts of Balochistan are below the poverty line.
He said this package means nothing until talks with Baramdagh Bugti are held, Pervez Musharraf should be declared killer of Akbar Bugti and our
resources should be given back.
The Baloch MPs also demanded general amnesty for all the Baloch politicians and full control on their resources.
Senator Mir Mohabat Khan Marri of PML disagreed with other Baloch leaders and stated that the situation in Balochistan was not alarming and said that
the emotional speeches had caused damage to the Baloch youth in the past as thousands of them had gone to Afghanistan to fight against Russia and
lost life. The youth in the province now did not have faith in their political leadership and the provincial government. Their main concern was the
increasing unemployment. Senator Abdul Rahim Khan Mandokhel of PKMAP appreciated the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan but said that it needed
sincerity for the implementation.
“The basic issue of my province was constitutional and political,” he said. Provinces should be given complete control on their own resources. Jan
Mohammad Khan Jamali, Deputy Chairman Senate, said courage and determination required to solve Balochistan issue. It was good that Package was
tabled in the joint session. Pointing out the gravity of Balochistan situation, he remarked that in the month of December East Pakistan was separated
due to wrong policies.
He demanded that Senate elections should be held direct and the province be given complete fiscal power. He warned that Baloch youth were ultra
nationalists therefore it was difficult to control them by mere promises and statements. He remarked “for visible change in Balochistan many executive
orders were needed. He urged the government to hold talks with dissident Baloch leaders like Khair Bux Marri and Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti.
http://pakobserver.net/200912/10/news/topstories14.asp
Balochistan package gets positive response
By Raja Asghar
Tuesday, 08 Dec, 2009 | 05:00 AM PST |
ISLAMABAD: The government’s package on Balochistan received a positive response at the start of a debate in parliament on Monday though some
opposition lawmakers said the concessions offered were not enough to pacify the troubled province steeped in deprivation and blood.
Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, opening the projected three-day debate in a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate, called the
39-point package unveiled on Nov 24 a good beginning his PML-N party would back if pursued sincerely but demanded an urgent dialogue with Baloch
leadership not represented in parliament or not consulted yet as well as dissidents who took up arms after granting them what he called a ‘meaningful
amnesty’.
In what made the treasury benches appear happy after a spate of criticism they have faced on some other issues, he congratulated the 20-month-old
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government for making a departure from the past practice of training guns on those demanding their rights,
and proposed improving the package in light of the debate and by referring it also to the Balochistan provincial assembly and other sections of society to
elicit their opinion so it may not be like giving a medicine for cold for an ailment needing a much powerful doze.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who announced the package in a Nov 24 joint sitting, sat through most of the proceedings presided over by Senate
chairman Farooq H. Naek, which saw most speakers across party lines backing the government’s move, though two senators of the so-called
nationalist Baloch parties saw it too deficient to undo the wrongs done to the country’s largest but least populated province over the past 62 years after
the country’s creation and, like some others, called for an immediate cessation of what they called a continuing military operation, tracing a variously
estimated number of ‘missing persons’ and trial of former president Pervez Musharraf for allegedly ordering the murder of former provincial governor
and tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
Attendance of the sitting, particularly on opposition benches, fell sharply after the prime minister left the house, prompting some of those who spoke
afterwards to complain of apparent disinterest of most parliament members in such an important matter.
PPP’s senator Raza Rabbani, who gave details of the package on Nov 24 as head of a parliamentary committee on the subject, made it clear in a brief
intervention that the government had no intention to seek a parliament vote on the package though it would seek to benefit from the debate to ‘further
fine-tune’ the document, which envisages a series of political, administrative and economic measures besides constitutional reforms like greater
provincial autonomy being considered by another all-parties parliamentary committee, and proposes a parliamentary monitoring of the process.
Chairman Naek, who chaired the proceedings in the absence of National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza who is in France on a visit, also reassured
the sitting with his hope that the government would consider the proposals made in the debate on the package he called a turning point in the country’s
history. The debate will continue until Wednesday to be wound up, according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan, by the prime minister.
‘This problem needs an unconventional style – rather I would say a revolutionary style —to resolve this matter or to make progress towards its
resolution,’ Chaudhry Nisar said in his speech and added: ‘The opposition is ready to help the government in this national problem.’
He said his party would support any package or solution that is supported by and is satisfactory to the Balochistan people and the assembly and, in a
reference to the demands for provincial autonomy earlier, he said Punjab, as the country’s most populous province and his party’s stronghold, and its
lawmakers were ready for such a change.
The opposition leader demanded that the government go ahead with package measures that be implemented immediately while having dialogue with
stake-holders on others, possibly through ‘back-door diplomacy’, and suggested that a special delegation of parliament engage with the estranged
Baloch leaders.
Balochistan-based Jamhoori Watan Party’s Shahid Hassan Bugti, a son-in-law of late Akbar Bugti, complained Balochistan had been regarded as a
conquered ‘colony’ from 1948 todate and said a military operation was still continuing there despite denials by government functionaries.
He said Baloch people would accept nothing short of full provincial autonomy and control over their natural resources and described package promises
such as more jobs and abolition of the concurrent legislative list in the Constitution as attempts to amuse them. ‘You have to go much further than the
concurrent list.’
However, Mr Bugti praised the work being done by the constitutional reforms committee, of which he is a member and which too is headed by Mr
Rabbani, and said: ‘I ask everybody not to push them.’
National Party’s Hasil Bizenjo, a son of former Balochistan governor the late Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, complained of what he saw as a continuous
breach of Baloch trust by Pakistani rulers at the centre and alleged that ‘army as an institution’ rather than only then army chief Gen Musharraf was
involved in Nawab Bugti’s killing in 2006 in an attack on his hideout.
Pakistan Muslim League-Q MNA Mir Ahmadan Khan Bugti, who had been an opponent of Nawab Bugti, denied there was any military operation going
on in his Dera Bugti district and blamed the ‘establishment’ together with Balochistan’s ‘upper class’ for creating the present problem.
The strongest support for the move from a Baloch lawmaker came from Postal Services Minister Senator Israrullah Khan Zehri of Balochistan National
Party-Awami who said the package contained ‘many good things’ though a vague language used to describe some of them was not fully understood by
plain-speaking Baloch people.
He called for the implementation of a 1948 document he said had been signed by Pakistan’s founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah with then
Khan of Kalat under which centre would have only four subjects, and was greeted with a “Zindabad” slogan from a section of the house as he vowed to
‘face from the front’ those people who would obstruct the path of progress.
Support for the package also came from PPP’s senator from Balochistan Mrs Suriya Amiruddin, MNA Nawab Mohammad Yusuf Talpur from Sindh,
Awami National Party senators Haji Mohmmad Adeel and Mohammad Zahid Khan from the NWFP, PML-N MNA Tahira Aurangzeb from the Punjab and
PML-Q’s senator Mrs Rehana Yahya Baloch from Balochistan before the sitting was adjourned until 2.30pm on Tuesday.
http://www.dawn.com/
By Raja Asghar
Tuesday, 08 Dec, 2009 | 05:00 AM PST |
ISLAMABAD: The government’s package on Balochistan received a positive response at the start of a debate in parliament on Monday though some
opposition lawmakers said the concessions offered were not enough to pacify the troubled province steeped in deprivation and blood.
Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, opening the projected three-day debate in a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate, called the
39-point package unveiled on Nov 24 a good beginning his PML-N party would back if pursued sincerely but demanded an urgent dialogue with Baloch
leadership not represented in parliament or not consulted yet as well as dissidents who took up arms after granting them what he called a ‘meaningful
amnesty’.
In what made the treasury benches appear happy after a spate of criticism they have faced on some other issues, he congratulated the 20-month-old
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government for making a departure from the past practice of training guns on those demanding their rights,
and proposed improving the package in light of the debate and by referring it also to the Balochistan provincial assembly and other sections of society to
elicit their opinion so it may not be like giving a medicine for cold for an ailment needing a much powerful doze.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who announced the package in a Nov 24 joint sitting, sat through most of the proceedings presided over by Senate
chairman Farooq H. Naek, which saw most speakers across party lines backing the government’s move, though two senators of the so-called
nationalist Baloch parties saw it too deficient to undo the wrongs done to the country’s largest but least populated province over the past 62 years after
the country’s creation and, like some others, called for an immediate cessation of what they called a continuing military operation, tracing a variously
estimated number of ‘missing persons’ and trial of former president Pervez Musharraf for allegedly ordering the murder of former provincial governor
and tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
Attendance of the sitting, particularly on opposition benches, fell sharply after the prime minister left the house, prompting some of those who spoke
afterwards to complain of apparent disinterest of most parliament members in such an important matter.
PPP’s senator Raza Rabbani, who gave details of the package on Nov 24 as head of a parliamentary committee on the subject, made it clear in a brief
intervention that the government had no intention to seek a parliament vote on the package though it would seek to benefit from the debate to ‘further
fine-tune’ the document, which envisages a series of political, administrative and economic measures besides constitutional reforms like greater
provincial autonomy being considered by another all-parties parliamentary committee, and proposes a parliamentary monitoring of the process.
Chairman Naek, who chaired the proceedings in the absence of National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza who is in France on a visit, also reassured
the sitting with his hope that the government would consider the proposals made in the debate on the package he called a turning point in the country’s
history. The debate will continue until Wednesday to be wound up, according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan, by the prime minister.
‘This problem needs an unconventional style – rather I would say a revolutionary style —to resolve this matter or to make progress towards its
resolution,’ Chaudhry Nisar said in his speech and added: ‘The opposition is ready to help the government in this national problem.’
He said his party would support any package or solution that is supported by and is satisfactory to the Balochistan people and the assembly and, in a
reference to the demands for provincial autonomy earlier, he said Punjab, as the country’s most populous province and his party’s stronghold, and its
lawmakers were ready for such a change.
The opposition leader demanded that the government go ahead with package measures that be implemented immediately while having dialogue with
stake-holders on others, possibly through ‘back-door diplomacy’, and suggested that a special delegation of parliament engage with the estranged
Baloch leaders.
Balochistan-based Jamhoori Watan Party’s Shahid Hassan Bugti, a son-in-law of late Akbar Bugti, complained Balochistan had been regarded as a
conquered ‘colony’ from 1948 todate and said a military operation was still continuing there despite denials by government functionaries.
He said Baloch people would accept nothing short of full provincial autonomy and control over their natural resources and described package promises
such as more jobs and abolition of the concurrent legislative list in the Constitution as attempts to amuse them. ‘You have to go much further than the
concurrent list.’
However, Mr Bugti praised the work being done by the constitutional reforms committee, of which he is a member and which too is headed by Mr
Rabbani, and said: ‘I ask everybody not to push them.’
National Party’s Hasil Bizenjo, a son of former Balochistan governor the late Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, complained of what he saw as a continuous
breach of Baloch trust by Pakistani rulers at the centre and alleged that ‘army as an institution’ rather than only then army chief Gen Musharraf was
involved in Nawab Bugti’s killing in 2006 in an attack on his hideout.
Pakistan Muslim League-Q MNA Mir Ahmadan Khan Bugti, who had been an opponent of Nawab Bugti, denied there was any military operation going
on in his Dera Bugti district and blamed the ‘establishment’ together with Balochistan’s ‘upper class’ for creating the present problem.
The strongest support for the move from a Baloch lawmaker came from Postal Services Minister Senator Israrullah Khan Zehri of Balochistan National
Party-Awami who said the package contained ‘many good things’ though a vague language used to describe some of them was not fully understood by
plain-speaking Baloch people.
He called for the implementation of a 1948 document he said had been signed by Pakistan’s founder Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah with then
Khan of Kalat under which centre would have only four subjects, and was greeted with a “Zindabad” slogan from a section of the house as he vowed to
‘face from the front’ those people who would obstruct the path of progress.
Support for the package also came from PPP’s senator from Balochistan Mrs Suriya Amiruddin, MNA Nawab Mohammad Yusuf Talpur from Sindh,
Awami National Party senators Haji Mohmmad Adeel and Mohammad Zahid Khan from the NWFP, PML-N MNA Tahira Aurangzeb from the Punjab and
PML-Q’s senator Mrs Rehana Yahya Baloch from Balochistan before the sitting was adjourned until 2.30pm on Tuesday.
http://www.dawn.com/
