Balochistan scene

TWO years after the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, that the authorities at that time believed would take the sting out of the violent protests Balochistan had become accustomed to, things have not much changed. A rocket attack here or a bomb explosion there continues to be the norm, with the inevitable consequence of a varying death toll. Only on Monday, eight persons lay dead and 26 others injured, including three journalists and three children, in a series of incidents that the memory of Nawab Bugti and others who died with him in the Tratani Mountains had most probably occasioned. However, the basic reason: the local people's anger at the raw deal they have received over the years. Several political parties have joined together in making a wheel-jam and general strike call in the province.
Ordinarily, one would imagine that the new set-up, that is yet trying to find its feet, should stand in need of time enough to gauge the situation and formulate policies to redress the local people's grievances. But since these grievances are quite well known and the spadework for removing them had been done by a parliamentary committee on Balochistan constituted by the previous regime, the new government ought to have initiated some action already that could have raised hopes of the local population. The delay is leading the people to believe that even the political administration has no intention of looking into their plight. A Senator from Balochistan warned on Monday that the government's indifference was compelling the people to think in terms of independence, and another has complained of genocide.
The province has heard too often commitments like the one Senator Raza Rabbani, leader of the House in the Senate, has made. There is no point in keeping on regretting the injustices of the past, or saying that the government was committed to bring about radical changes in its policy on Balochistan, when there is hardly any sign of movement towards that end. It is time to act.