Balochistan unrest

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  Balochistan unrest

Sunday 4 November 2012

Last Update 3 November 2012 4:42 pm

Recently, Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government has failed to protect Balochistan from internal disturbances. As far as the provincial government is concerned, it had lost its constitutional authority to govern Balochistan because of violation of fundamental rights of the people. The apex court in its order also ordered the central government not to release funds for the provincial government.

On Saturday the court rejected the federal and provincial governments’ requests to withdraw its Oct. 12 interim order in Balochistan law and order case.
A day earlier on the direction of the top court an opposition leader in the Balochistan Assembly Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind was arrested from the court premises.
It is to be noted that the Quetta Anti-Terrorism Court had awarded life imprisonment to Rind, his son Sardar Khan Rind and four other people for allegedly kidnapping a man and failing to appear before the court. According to government’s own sources 90 percent of the ministers of the Balochistan provincial government are involved in corruption cases.

Due to federal government’s silence and weak opposition things are going from bad to worse in Balochistan and killing of innocent people is continuing unabated in different parts of the province. The day the Supreme Court announced its decision declaring the provincial government unconstitutional, armed militants opened fire on a bus killing 18 people including women and children.

On the issue of missing people anti-Pakistan sentiments are running high in the province and the central government is also losing the battle. Although government’s powerful agencies deny all allegations regarding missing people and say no one is in illegal custody but the fact is that case of missing person has become a miserable chapter of Pakistan’s political history.

— Khawaja Umer Farooq, Jeddah