Interview reposted from Viewpoint | January 7, 2011 | Link to interview

There are nearly three hundred and fifty arms manufacturing factories in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The government endorses, encourages and legalizes those factories by recognizing them as the source of income for the tribal people.

Former Senator Sanaullah Baloch is among several top Balcoh nationalist leaders who have fled Balochistan because of increasing targeted killings of Baloch leaders and political activists. A former secretary information of Balochistan National Party (BNP), Mr. Baloch is widely respected as an argumentative champion of Baloch national rights through newspaper articles, interviews and presentations at national and international conferences.

In an exclusive interview with the Sanaullah Baloch, Viewpoint spoke about the Balochistan imbroglio and possibilities of rapprochement with Islamabad. Excerpts:

How would you evaluate year 2010 for Balochistan?

The situation in Balochistan has been disconcerting since 2001. But the last three years have been very painful for Balochistan's politics, economy and society. Violation of human rights has reached its nadir in the province. The year 2010 was the darkest and the worst year of the outgoing decade for Balochistan because more political workers went missing and were subsequently killed. Federal security forces converted Balochistan into a semi-cantonment and curtailed all basic human liberties and rights.

Who is responsible for this situation, Islamabad or Quetta?

Actually, the onus lies on the federal government. I would specially hold the Establishment, which comprises of the military, bureaucracy and policymakers, responsible for maintaining a pugnacious approach towards Balochistan. Their policy is not much different from colonial policies. They want to control Balochistan politically, economically and socially.

In order to control the society and politics of Balochistan, Islamabad has unleashed a policy of divide and rule under which it is pampering some pro-Establishment sardars, nawabs and criminal groups. The prevailing state of poverty, lawlessness, anarchy and disappointment is in fact the fallout of federal government's deliberate policy of negligence and suppression.

No doubt, successive provincial governments are equally responsible for these wrongdoings but you have to understand that their role has not been more than that of pawns in the control of the Establishment.

What do you think were the reasons for the failure of the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package which the government initially claimed was intended to improve the conditions in Balochistan?

When the Balochistan Package was prepared, it was one-sided. The process of conflict resolution or management does not succeed until all players of a conflict are taken into confidence. The package was only meant to fool the international community and the regional powers which want the stability of the region by telling them that Islamabad was seriously working for the Balochistan conflict's resolution.

Political conflicts mainly originate from social and economic deprivation. The main cause of unrest in Balochistan since 1947 is the political oppression and people's deprivation. The province is economically controlled and a special security apparatus rules the province. The official narrative is that they want to develop Balochistan but the Baloch do not accept their model of development. Therefore, they justifies the use of brute force against the Balochs.

In fact, the Balochistan Package was flawed and replete with defects. Significantly, Baloch nationalists, who are the real actors of the conflict, were not a part of the package. Nowhere in the world does conflict resolution take place in the absence of facilitators and guarantors.

One of the apparent reasons for the exclusion of the nationalists in the decision-making process was your absence from the existing parliamentary structure. Do you now realize that boycotting the general elections was a blunder the nationalists committed? Would the negotiation process succeed if the nationalists had contested the polls?

We are democratic people and want to utilize all forms of political struggle. Unfortunately, circumstances in 2008 were so adverse in Balochistan that it was not possible for the nationalists to participate in the general elections. While some Baloch leaders had been killed, the others, such as our party president Sardar Akhtar Mengal, were imprisoned. We were all forced to live in exile. Thousands of cases were registered against our political activists while the senior ones were on the government's hit-list. How could we contest elections when harsh circumstances did not permit us field candidates, run election campaigns and mobilize public support?

The same situation still exists in Balochistan. The federal government has deliberately continued this undemocratic policy so that the genuine Baloch representatives are kept away from the electoral process and assemblies where key decisions are made. If the current situation of insecurity and oppression continues, perhaps we will not participate in future elections either.

Some people believe moderate nationalist parties like your BNP and the National Party are finding it hard to continue parliamentary politics because of the internal polarization within the Baloch society where the armed groups, headed by the disillusioned youth, are hostile toward parliamentary politics. Is it really a reason for BNP's escape from elections and parliamentary process?

Well, there is difference of opinion (among the nationalists) on some matters. The Balochistan National Party purely believes in democratic struggle. We have never approved of resolving problems on gunpoint. We have criticized Islamabad for the same reason because it has endeavored to usurp Balochistan's resources and rule it on gunpoint. We morally backed people who defended themselves. However, we discouraged the new trend of excessively applying violence to resolve political issues.

It is better for politics to control guns not for guns to control politics. This is one issue on which we have a difference of opinion with the armed groups operating in Balochistan. However, I believe we are all political forces and must respect each other's right to have a different opinion and approach on various issues.

Therefore, the Baloch political parties and armed groups must respect each other's approaches. I do not think if the armed groups have created any problems for us so far. We predominantly hold Islamabad responsible for distancing us from the political process.

Currently, all top Baloch nationalist leaders such as Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Dawood, Nawabzada Hairbayar Marri, Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti and yourself are all out of Balochistan. Are you people in touch with each other from outside the country to plan to return to Balochistan to fix the issue?

Balochistan is our motherland. Our all political struggle, similar to our senior leaders, is dedicated to Balochistan's well being and prosperity. Life in exile is a painful one. Nobody wants to live away from one's own people at the time of happiness or sadness. We all Baloch leaders collectively share this anguish of being forced to stay away from our own people and the politics of Balochistan.

As far as contacts between different nationalist leaders are concerned, we are all living in different places in hard conditions. It is not always easy to remain in touch with each other. Nonetheless, it does not mean that there are differences among us. We largely agree upon most issues faced by Balochistan. The BNP has always taken the initiative to unite the Balochs and we will continue our efforts to bring the Baloch leaders closer to each other on issues that we agree upon.

Last year, your party's secretary general Habib Jalib Baloch was killed while at the end of the year the provincial president of the Jamori Watan Party (JWP) Shahzain Bugti has been arrested. How do the murders and arrests of Baloch leaders derail the peace process, if there is any, in Balochistan?

Islamabad treats our people like cattle even if they are an ordinary shepherd or a tribal chief. We are against such maltreatment of the Baloch people.

When the operation against Nawab Bugti was launched, the federal government leveled similar baseless allegations against the Baloch leaders.

There are nearly three hundred and fifty arms manufacturing factories in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The government endorses, encourages and legalizes those factories by recognizing them as the source of income for the tribal people. In Balochistan, the tribes and their chiefs are disrespected by the forces, an attitude which is intolerable and unacceptable to us. Regardless of our differences with certain political figures, we believe they must not be disrespected and mistreated.

The killings of our political leaders like Habib Jalib Baloch, Maula Baksh Dashti (a central committee member of the National Party and a former district Nazim of Turbat district) and Nooruddin Mengal ( a central committee member of the BNP) were in fact great losses for us as we badly needed them among us at this critical juncture. Today, no Baloch activist, leader or intellectual is safe.

How do you see the recent report published in the New York Times about Washington's concern over the enforced disappearances in Balochistan?

If you take a look at the old State Department reports about the state of human rights in Pakistan, there is also a little description of the rights violation in Balochistan. The US government already knows what exactly is happening in Balochistan but it tends to keep silent because it does not want to irk Islamabad. What has been mentioned in the recent report hardly reflects the far worse situation that exists in the province at the moment.

Pakistani judiciary and parliamentary committees on human rights are totally silent on Baloch issues. There is a state of insecurity for people who believe in peaceful political struggle on surface. When they are deprived of this space, where else will they go except for the mountains to continue politics?

The United States of America and the European Union should take notice of the violation of human rights in the province.

Baloch nationalists often ventilate their anger over the Frontier Corps (FC) and its check posts. What actually are your grievances?

We have always demanded an end to the presence of a third party i.e. military and paramilitary forces in Balochistan. While there is no such heavy presence of security forces in the rest of the country, why is lack of trust shown toward the Balochs by deploying so many troops in Balochistan? The heavy deployment has made it impossible for the local people to grow economically, socially and politically. There are around eight to nine hundred check posts of the Frontier Corps (FC) across Balochistan. There is one check post for every population of eight thousand people. You cannot see such an overwhelming and aggressive presence of the forces in the remaining three provinces.

The FC has been granted powers under the Customs Act which means it can even monitor the movement of Balochs on the roads or in the streets. If the FC is going to perform every job then what is the need to have other state institutions?

Moreover, we have argued that the FC has a very colonial structure. For instance, the Rangers in Punjab, Sindh and FC in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa predominantly comprise of locals of those provinces but in Balochistan the FC is entirely manned with "outsiders" who often treat the local populations as their salves. The FC is a major cause of resentment because it has always had a key role in stirring trouble in the province. It is a major bone of contention rather than being a solution to the problem.

What do you suggest as confidence building measures (CBMs) to deescalate tensions?

We had been negotiating with the government since 2004. Unfortunately, it is the federal government, not the Balochs, who waged a war on us. We have always recommended that the people of Balochistan should be respectfully treated like equal citizens of the land. The federal government should clarify its expectations from Balochistan. On the other hand, we Balochs are clear about our reservations and demands.

First of all, we believe our very existence is in danger. The Baloch geography, language, culture, population and demography are all jeopardized. Our majority population is being converted into a minority. These are very genuine concerns which Islamabad should address transparently.

An unstable Balochistan will lead to more chaos in the entire region. This region is not only important for Pakistan but for many other countries of the world. They must not overlook the Baloch conflict. The international community should not see Balochistan solely as an internal administrative problem of Pakistan. Understanding the significance of the conflict, we invite the international community to mediate and facilitate conflict management between Balochs and Islamabad.

Both sides should be given a chance to state their stance and then proceed toward a win-win solution to our problems.

Agreed, Islamabad is currently using a militaristic approach to silence the Baloch dissent, I do not see the majority of Balochs giving in to such a tactic in the 21st century. A lot of Balochs may be killed in resisting this approach but I am sure our people will resist Islamabad's belligerent style of grappling with Balochistan. We want the cycle of bloodshed, enforced disappearances, targeted killings, increase in two-sided hatred to stop for the sake of our coming generations.

Malik Siraj Akbar is a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the editor of The Baloch Hal, Balochistan's first online English language newspaper: editor@thebalochhal.com

Sanaullah Baloch is a former senator. He can be reached at balochbnp@gmail.com. Visit his website at: http://sanabaloch.com