Unrest Faced by Residents in Balochistan

Syed Arbaz Shah

Surviving infinite odds, residents in Balochistan seem less concerned about what was boiling up inside the provincial assembly for more than couple of weeks. A faction consisting on 16 members from within the ruling Balochistan Awami Party have made unabated efforts in nexus with 24 opposition members out of total 65 members to oust chief minister Jam Kamal Khan from his office. But before things were expected to be done in assembly on October 25th, Jam submitted a resignation to the governor a night prior to the session could come in practice.

On other hand, the road to the legislative assembly, governor house and chief minister’s office was packed for the third time in just a month and half leading to demonstration of the victim’s family from Hoshab, Kech who staged a sit-in for more than a week to protest over the killing of their two children. The family was not responded by the provincial authorities and later the matter was rested by the high court and the family left the city in utter desperation.

The faction presided by former finance minister Zahoor Ahmad Buledi who submitted a no-confidence motion on October 21 against chief minister Balochistan to speaker of the house who received the motion and ruled the house adjourned until 25 October and scheduled the motion to be practiced in the called assembly session –– Prior to this session, Bulaidi had claimed 40 members on his side but four could not make their presence in assembly thus Bulaidi made his “Say” addressing a press conference in assembly and accused Jam of tending to miss or forcibly detain his colleagues from joining them in the ouster.Which is now done by the submission of Jam’s resignation before the fraction would go into assembly against him.

Seemingly, the subsequent evening, the whereabouts of claimed four minising members of assembly was found in Islamabad as Bushra Rind, Mehjabeen Shiran, Laila Tareen and Akbar Askani appeared in a visual clip proclaiming to be safe and pledged to remain loyal in proceeding the motion against sitting CM Jam Kamal.

Political activists opinionate the abrupt shuffle in provincial set-up that the two groups are backed by the state establishment and as matter of fact, it’s them divided into two fractions who are toiling-up to do their job out of the official premises in the political arena. What was it tied with the  “Ouster” that would redress people’s grievances?

Apparently  In the last one and half month alone, there have been three major incidents that have appeared in the province, all which laid victim families to stage a sit-in in “Red Zone” against the provincial government urging it to heed-out the matter and probe into the incident.

Haplessly, none of the three incidents have been into investigation and no dug-outs are yet to be on ground to identify the elements behind the attempt. The Baloch family proclaimed their statement to the press and allegedly evoked to blame the para-military responsible for the mortar shell on the residential town in Hoshab that caused the death of their children. But a denial in response to the claims made by victim family appeared subsequently from provincial interior ministry.

Unfortunately, It’s the still continued failed tactic in the state of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, that all sheer mishaps that come to harm the public are blamed to be the militants against the state and no security provision is assured to the citizens to protect them, instead they are left to the wolves on their own despite abundance of financial allocation of 1.37 trillion for defence services in the budget for fiscal year 2021-22, marking an increase of 6.2 per cent.

The citizens see the uncertainty in the province is a thorough negligence of the state authorities to protect its citizens. Instead, the grieved families claim the state security forces are intentionally making such attempts to curb the vocal voices that are raised for seeking their fundamental constitutionally guaranteed human rights.

In late August, a levies force’s patrolling vehicle accidentally got hit with the land-mine in Mangi-dam area of district Ziarat of Balochistan that claimed three levies personnel dead and one wounded. A day later on August 26, a sit-in was staged by the grieved Pashtun families with the victim dead bodies intending to block the Ziarat cross that distances 60 kilo-meters from capital Quetta and is a proper trading belt connecting Balochistan with Kheyber Pakhtun-Khuwa and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. The sit-in demonstrated for two weeks stressing the authorities to serve them with justice and later ended as a result of repeated negotiations between the government team and sit-in committee reached an agreement that government would do their best to compensate the victim families and bring the culprits to the court of law, the family agreed to bury the levies personnel in their hometowns.

The continuation of the same terror layer reported another incident that happened on October 02, where a similar tragedy took place in Turbat area of district Kech that claimed a child Raamiz Khalil killed in a Law Enforcement Agencies operation and succumbed to wounds. His dead body was brought to Quetta and sit-in was staged in“ Red Zone” to protest against the inattentiveness and irresponsible attitude of state authorities, which hardly last for two days and when received no response from the government left the city in despairs and returned to their locality to bury him.

Lastly and until yet, the Hoshab (Kech) incident was reported on 10th of October where a mortar shell was allegedly fired from the para-military checkpoint on the population in the area that claimed two children dead and three other injured. Wahid Baloch, the victim’s children ‘s father explains the situation he witnessed. “ the children were playing outside of the house. I heard a loud bang of an explosion and got numbed for a while, rushed to the spot where I found my son Allah Bakhsh 5 and daughter Sharatoon ( Malee) 7 dead and three other wounded”.  He added, “ the mortar shell was opened from the para-military checkpoint near the population, after the incident I along with other family members protested to the district administration on shaheed Fida-junction in Hoshab where our demands did not meet to the end. Later, we were joined by the civil society, political parties and human rights activists and proceeded towards capital city Quetta. To make it possible, we moved 700 kilo-meters to reach the red-zone at the Chief Minister’s house to stage a sit-it”.

Nonetheless the massive fiscal support for the defense, Pakistan suffers the intense security threats that keeps the civilians at it’s prior attempt. Jam Kamal Khan’s administration failed to serve the citizens but what is new in the box for citizens as another fraction will come in power?

The opposition in the legislative assembly that earlier taunted BAP’s government as a result of election engineering by the establishment, joins the annoyed faction against Jam’s administration to support them in the against him.
Now that Jam Kamal Khan stepped down from his office, what is there for citizens that did not come from Jam’s tenure? Would there be a redressal strategy to address their genuine grievances or assurance of citizens security?

The residents in Balochistan seem less interested in the shuffle within the ruling party that has yet not served on their wills and protected them in their unrest or joined them in their grievances.
Unless Pakistan understands the actual grievances of its citizens and give the utmost attention to one of it’s least concerned provinces Balochistan.A remedy should be brought to the existing problems by dialogue not by a military solution.Else, The discomfort in the country would always be in the fore-fate of both the state and its citizens.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agree with them.