QUETTA, May 19: President Pervez Musharraf's offer of conditional amnesty in Balochistan has been rejected by
prominent politicians, tribal leaders and local observers, some of whom have described it as an insult to the
Baloch people and irrelevant in the current situation.
Most of them have said that the Baloch people and tribesmen had not revolted against the authorities, but were
forced to flee to the mountains after talks between tribal leaders and a parliamentary committee were disrupted by
a military operation.
During his recent visit to Sui, Gen Musharraf had reiterated his conditional amnesty offer, and at the same time
warned people to either lay down their arms or face annihilation.
According to local people, Balochistan's tribal past goes back to pre-historic times. Various Baloch tribes have
been living in the area for at least 2,000 years. Weapons are always considered part of personal belongings and a
means of personal security.
No government in the past made any serious attempt to de-weaponise the province. And taking to the hills has
been the traditional form of protest against a government.
The current situation, they say, arose when the government launched a military operation, and it took a decisive
turn when prominent Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was gunned down.
One tribal leader says there is widespread bitterness among the people of Balochistan against the military
operation, dislocation of civilians and disruption of civic life and rendering of hundreds of thousands of people
homeless. The internally-displace d people are spread all over, in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab.
Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali supported the concept of 'general amnesty', saying that the late
Gen Ziaul Haq had announced a similar amnesty which created an atmosphere conducive to resolving
outstanding issues.
"As prime minister, I had suggested to the president in the first meeting of the National Security Council to
announce a general amnesty in Balochistan to help resolve all issues through negotiations," Mir Jamali told Dawn.
He said there should be "no doubt that people in Balochistan are Muslims and Pakistanis and if the government
had shown open-heartedness by announcing a general amnesty, positive results would have been achieved".
President Musharraf's offer, he said, would restore people's confidence and create a favourable atmosphere for
dialogue.
Nawabzada Baramdagh Bugti, a leading Baloch militant, however, rejected the offer and said that it would not help
end the Baloch resistance that was bound to spread all over the province.
"The Baloch resistance is not confined to just two tehsils (in Balochistan) . Militants are forcefully resisting
government forces in vast areas of Balochistan," he told newsmen from an undisclosed location on satellite
phone. He claimed that the rulers were trying to find a way to pull their forces out of the area because of the severe
resistance being offered by Baloch insurgents.
Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, secretary-general of the National Party, said that the Baloch people were offended even at
the suggestion of "surrendering arms" and the tone in which the president had made the offer was quite insulting.
He said the Baloch people were struggling for their rights and they were not foreign nationals whom the president
was ordering to surrender while hurling the threat of dire consequences.
"Such threats are hurled only when someone is fighting a foreign enemy or those who are against the state. This
is not the case in Balochistan. People are struggling for their legitimate rights," Hasil Khan said.
"After the killing of Nawab Bugti, General Musharraf should have apologised to the nation, and especially to the
Baloch people."
Mr Bizenjo said that the rulers had forced the Baloch people to take up arms and seek refuge in mountains by
launching a military operation in order to deny them their rights for which they had been struggling for the past 58
years. He said that the entire nation was against the wrong policies of the present military leaders and was
supporting the people of Balochistan.
Habib Jalib, secretary-general of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) , also rejected idea of a conditional
amnesty and said that generals who were conducting the military operation should themselves retreat, instead of
asking the Baloch people to surrender. He said that times had changed and the military dictator should surrender
to democratic forces and to the people's will.
"It is the government which imposed the operation on the people of Balochistan who were only demanding their
constitutional and legal rights," Arbab Abdul Zahir Kasi, senior vice-president of the Awami National Party, said.
Accusing the government and the armed forces of sabotaging peace talks, he said that Baloch leaders, especially
Nawab Bugti, had never refused to hold talks. The ANP leader said that Balochistan was a tribal society where
nobody liked to hear the word "surrender", adding that General Musharraf's conditional offer, accompanied by
threats, would never work.
"If they are really sincere about resolving the Balochistan issue, they should hold meaningful negotiations with
Baloch and Pakhtun leaders and settle all issues," said Arbab Zahir. Otherwise, he added, the situation would
worsen.
PPP's Balochistan general-secretary Bismillah Khan Kakar said that no issue could be resolved by use of force or
threats, adding that Gen Musharraf was using the "military's language" while offering amnesty to militants. This
was bound to be counter-productive.
"The general's conditional amnesty offer is provocative and it is not likely to generate any positive response," Mr
Khan said, adding that the offer was against the spirit of amnesty usually offered for settling political conflicts.
Bismillah Khan said that the amnesty offer accompanied by threats would further aggravate the situation. He
advised the government to change its dictatorial attitude if it wanted to resolve issues currently being confronted by
the country, especially Balochistan.
Mr Kachkol Ali, Leader of Opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, also expressed dismay over the amnesty offer.
He said it seemed that the rulers did not give any importance to the law or the Constitution and they had no
respect for elected institutions which had been demanding for a long time to resolve Balochistan issues through
negotiations.
"They are taking whimsical decisions without any respect for people's will," said Kachkol Ali. He blamed the
government's negative attitude for pushing the Baloch youths to the path that they had taken. "Now, the situation is
beyond amnesty and such offers would not bring about any results".
The Democratic and conscious people of Pakistan !!!
Musharaf & his military should retreat, surrender and lay their arms before democratic forces of Pakistan.
The fascists and rascist MQM should be banned and their leaders should be punished by hanging them on
"Shah Faisel Road" Karachi, in broad day of lights. If the urdu speaking people in Sindh can`t adjust
themselves in the country, they ........ must leave to their original places like Bihar and U.P. and C.P. of India. The
Democratic forces must unite to bring the Fascist Military and Heroic Balochs on the negotiating tables or
unconditionally accept the freedom of Balochistan as Balochistan was never in the "Federation of Pakistan"
but was occupied in 1948. Balochs are patriotic people and traitors are those Biharees and Panjabees, who
broke the federation of Pakistan in 1971 and Balochs have nothing to do with those traitors.
