DailyTimes | March 10, 2011 | Story

By Mohammad Zafar

[Asma Jehangir] said that throwing bullet-riddled and mutilated bodies at public places must be stopped and all the political prisoners should be released with immediate effect so that grounds could be created for talks and negotiations. She said that everyone knows about the "˜safe houses' (illegal places of detention and torture) and it is in the knowledge of all that security personnel are operating those "˜safe houses', and they must be closed down permanently.

QUETTA: Supreme Court Bar Association President, Asma Jehangir said the government had never been serious about resolving the problems of Balochistan and it had not taken any serious steps to remove the sense of deprivation of the province's people.

She expressed these views while addressing a seminar titled "On Critical Issues of Balochistan, Suggestions and Solutions" at a local hotel on Tuesday. She said that the government had never made a committee of members who would seriously settle the issues by holding talks with concerned people. "The statements from the government leaders are irrelevant and are never followed by serious negotiations on the Balochistan issue. Pakistan's sovereignty is attached with the Balochistan and peace is necessary in this region for strengthening Pakistan," she said.

Asma categorically said that the government should send back the Frontier Corps to their military barracks because without this, peace will not be restored. "Use of police powers by the Frontier Corps is illegal and the FC should be stopped from using these powers," she told the gathering. "Those who are sitting in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore do not know about the problems of Balochistan, so how could they give any suggestions. First they have to understand the issues for which a group of intellectuals, political parties and journalists should visit Balochistan and take suggestions from the people," Asma said.

She said that throwing bullet-riddled and mutilated bodies at public places must be stopped and all the political prisoners should be released with immediate effect so that grounds could be created for talks and negotiations. She said that everyone knows about the "˜safe houses' (illegal places of detention and torture) and it is in the knowledge of all that security personnel are operating those "˜safe houses', and they must be closed down permanently. She said that the policies of dictators are still being practiced in Balochistan where extra-judicial arrests, targeted killings and hostage-taking are order of the day.

"Balochistan is burning; if fire is not brought under control, it will engulf the entire country," Asma warned. She recalled that lawyers had struggled and rendered sacrifices of life for the restoration of independent judiciary and rule of law in the country and warned that they would launch a similar campaign if anyone tries to harm the democratic government. "Lawyers are against dictatorship and support the democratic government," she told her audience. Jehangir expressed her reservations over the decision of parliamentary committee.

"The judiciary is not playing the role which it should have played. All institutions should work under the constitutional framework rather than challenging each other," she said. National Party President, Senator Dr Abdul Malik, claimed that certain forces were trying to play the "Balochistan card" again to impose martial law in the country. President Iskandar Mirza used the Balochistan card in imposing martial law in 1958, he recalled. He ruled out the possibility of Middle East-type revolution as it is being exploited by the vested interests in Pakistan. Dr Malik said that the military operation was still continuing and there was no ground on which negotiations could be held to resolve the Balochistan conflict.