Category: Pakistan Politics

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricket star turned politician, believes his moment of political triumph has finally arrived. On Monday, the country’s Supreme Court will begin a series of hearings in a highly anticipated corruption case that could result in the removal of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif from office.

“I think he is gone,” Mr. Khan said of Mr. Sharif, his bitter political rival. “The long, dark night is finally over.”

But a top aide to the prime minister said that a verdict resulting in such a removal would be “a judicial coup.”
For more than a year, Mr. Sharif has been mired in a bruising controversy over revelations that his family owns expensive residential properties in London through offshore companies. The information first surfaced last year in the leaked Panama Papers and was vehemently denied by Mr. Sharif.

But Mr. Khan has pestered Mr. Sharif and his family to provide the paper trails for the purchase of the apartments. “Show the receipts,” is a common slogan of Mr. Khan’s supporters and party workers.

The controversy has been a godsend for Mr. Khan, the opposition leader, who has relentlessly campaigned against Mr. Sharif ever since he took office in 2013 and has been on a personal crusade to remove him from office.

Mr. Khan led street protests last year that resulted in the Supreme Court hearing petitions regarding Mr. Sharif’s offshore wealth. In April, a five-member bench of the court decided the prime minister could remain in office but ordered an investigation into the allegations.

Two dissenting judges, however, recommended Mr. Sharif’s disqualification, with one justice equating Mr. Sharif to a “godfather” of an Italian-style Mafia.

The team of investigators, which included civil and military officials, completed its inquiry in the past week and concluded that Mr. Sharif, his two sons and a daughter had not been truthful about their offshore wealth. In a damning report, the investigators accused the members of the ruling family of living beyond their means, hiding their assets, perjury and forgery.

“The report is a pack of lies,” Mr. Sharif said in response.

The prime minister claims that the investigation focuses on his family’s decades-old private businesses and cannot find any proof of financial scandal or corruption in his current or past tenures.

The report caused an uproar in the country, and opposition political parties have united in calling for Mr. Sharif’s resignation. On Friday, opposition politicians urged Mr. Sharif to quit and nominate a new prime minister.

Mr. Sharif — who managed to survive huge street protests last year and in 2014, when Mr. Khan, the opposition politician, and his supporters laid siege to the capital for several months — has refused to buckle under the legal and political pressure.

After meeting his party leaders Friday afternoon, Mr. Sharif said he would stay in office at any cost.
But there is already an air of celebration at Mr. Khan’s hillside Mediterranean-style villa on the outskirts of Islamabad, the capital. Politicians are lining up to join his party. Every day, dozens of sport utility vehicles belonging to influential hopefuls choke the street outside his house, which also serves as his political office.

“Now, there will be criminal proceedings against the prime minister,” Mr. Khan said. “The whole family has lied to the court. The whole defense has been a fraud.”

Mr. Sharif was not named in the Panama Papers, but his sons, Hassan Nawaz Sharif and Hussain Nawaz Sharif, and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, were linked to the properties in London. The investigation is particularly damaging for Mr. Sharif’s daughter, who is seen as his political heir.

The investigators say that she produced a forged trust deed about the London apartments. The 2006 document claims that she was only a trustee and not owner of two offshore companies that bought the apartments. But investigators say it was typed in Calibri font, which was not commercially available to the public until 2007.

The investigators also allege that a letter sent by a Qatari royal whose family had been a business partner of Mr. Sharif’s father is fake. The letter supposedly provided details of their financial dealings.

On Monday, when the Supreme Court convenes, it could order the opening of a criminal investigation against the prime minister and his children after they are given a chance to respond to the investigation. But Mr. Khan is hoping that the justices, after having gone through the investigative report, will immediately remove Mr. Sharif under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution, which calls for the disqualification of any lawmaker found to be dishonest.

Government officials, on the other hand, say that they expect a prolonged bitter legal battle.
“There is no precedent of the court using Article 62 and 63,” Zafarullah Khan, the minister of state for law and justice and a top aide to the prime minister, said in an interview. “If a new history is to be made, I cannot say, but there is not a single precedent.”

He also said Mr. Sharif’s legal team planned to challenge the findings of the investigation team. “We have confidence in the Supreme Court,” said Mr. Khan, who is not related to Imran Khan. “The so-called evidences gathered by the investigative team are based on ‘sourced reports’ and don’t have evidentiary value.”

He added: “It is a political case. The opposition parties are using the shoulder of the courts to have a judicial coup.”

The minister said that the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, was standing firmly behind the prime minister. “There is a political upheaval, but it has been so for the last four years,” he said. “The opposition has been demanding resignation from Day 1. So what?”

The minister’s nonchalance, however, belied the pressure the government is facing. Back-to-back meetings were taking place among top government officials, aides and party leaders.

Other opposition politicians say they believe that the prime minister is running out of time. “The situation is very serious for Nawaz Sharif,” Moonis Elahi, an opposition politician, said. “I don’t see how the Sharifs can refute the documents they themselves presented to the court.”

Mr. Elahi said the prime minister had no one but himself to blame for the latest crisis. “Someone who has had so much power, he cannot cry foul,” Mr. Elahi said. “In the past, the Sharif family managed to manipulate the judicial system. But this time, we have a very different kind of judiciary.”

Opponents say that Mr. Sharif, who himself chose the current army and intelligence chiefs, cannot portray himself to be a victim of a conspiracy.

But Mr. Sharif, who has had a tense relationship with the country’s military, has said that, indeed, a conspiracy was hatched against him. And some of his loyalists have alleged, in veiled terms, that the country’s spy agency provided the investigation team with evidence against the ruling family.

Imran Khan, the opposition politician, said he expected early elections, as soon as this fall, if the court removes Mr. Sharif. But other major opposition parties say the current Parliament should continue its term until 2018, when elections are next scheduled.

Nevertheless, Mr. Khan said of Mr. Sharif: “I hope next week is his last week. You know that Elton John song ‘Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road’ — I am hoping there will be a big goodbye reception for Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad next week.”

ISLAMABAD, July 14: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that governments had been toppled in the country on accusations of corruption and being a ‘security risk’ in the past.

PM Nawaz was chairing the parliamentary meeting of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz here Friday.
During the meeting, the Premier reiterated his decision not to step down from office on the call of opposition, saying that he would continue to fight for the people of Pakistan till the end.

Nawaz Sharif went on to say that he had done nothing wrong and his conscience was clear.

Members of the parliamentary party overwhelmingly participated in the meeting, summoned to chalk out strategy in response to the opposition’s calls for the premier’s resignation following the submission of the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in the Supreme Court.

Sources said the members warmly welcomed PM Nawaz by thumping desks on his arrival for the meeting at the PM House.

Sources said at the beginning of the meeting, legal experts gave a briefing on the JIT report and the government’s potential response in the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while chairing meeting of federal cabinet explicitly dismissed JIT report that has raised questions about the source of his family´s wealth, rejecting it as slander.

Nawaz Sharif, serving his third term as prime minister, faces opposition calls to step down but he was defiant in his condemnation of the report that alleges his family´s income from business was not large enough to explain its wealth.

Amid loud thumping of desks by the Federal Cabinet members, confident and resolute Prime Minister said he was not going to resign and those seeking his resignation must come up with solid proof against him.

“I have no burden on my conscience by the grace of Allah. I haven’t done anything wrong. Our family has gained nothing from politics but lost a lot,” he said while chairing meeting of the Federal Cabinet.

The cabinet reposed full confidence in the leadership of the prime minister and endorsed his firm decision not to step down.

Addressing the cabinet, he asked: “Should I resign on the demand of anti-democracy forces? Why should I resign and on what basis? I was brought into power by the mandate of the people and only the people have the mandate to remove me.”

Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has revealed to the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that a case against Sharif Trust was under investigation when he took charge of the accountability bureau.

Chaudhry in his statement said the first family was accused of laundering millions through the Sharif Trust.
“The allegations further proved that the Sharif family’s accounts were not audited,” he said in his statement before the JIT.

“The Sharif family was accused of purchasing ‘un-named properties’,” he added.

Chaudhry had also stated that NAB Lahore was asked to collect details of the properties in order to forward a mutual legal assistance request to the British government.

“Due to lack of information, NAB could not request for mutual legal assistance for the property.”

The case, initiated in 2000, was heard by the Lahore High Court (LHC) and the apex court, added Chaudhry.

He further said efforts to obtain records were not evident from the relevant files.

“I assigned the case’s responsibility to a different officer and the process of collecting the record is underway now,” Chaudhry told the investigation team.

The statement further said that during investigations, it surfaced that records from the required time period were not available.

Another case against the premier revolved around Raiwind Road’s construction and was started by NAB Lahore and sent to NAB headquarters, the NAB Chairman’s statement added.

“NAB headquarters raised a few questions on the case and further investigations into the case are underway in the region,” he said.

An inquiry and two investigations against the prime minister and chief minister Punjab are underway according to Chaudhry’s statement.

The investigations and inquiry are regarding illegal use of authority in allotment of a Lahore Development Authority (LDA) plot.

The report submitted by the JIT to the SC states that investigations into all cases are underway and will soon be given a final shape.

“Hudaibiya Paper reference, Raiwind Estate reference, and willful loan default case were all dismissed by the LHC,” Chaudhry told the investigation team.

“Acting upon the advice of NAB prosecutor K.K. Agha, I did not file an appeal.”

The NAB prosecutor has an independent office in the bureau, formed for the department’s legal guidance, he added.

At least five Afghan checkpoints near the border with Pakistan were destroyed and 50 security forces killed in fighting in recent days, Pakistan’s military said on Sunday, even as Afghan officials dismissed the claims as “baseless.”

The Pakistani and Afghan armies have been clashing at the Chaman border crossing in southwestern Baluchistan province since Friday. The latest round of clashes is a dangerous escalation in tensions between the two uneasy neighbours who share a 2,200 kilometre (1,375-mile) porous border.

Two Pakistani soldiers were killed in the fighting that began on Friday and another nine were wounded, Maj. Gen. Nadeem Ahmad told reporters at the Chaman border crossing. Another 100 Afghan security forces were wounded, he said.

Najib Danish, spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, disputed the account, however, insisting no checkpoints were destroyed.

“That is completely baseless,” he said. He said two Afghan border police were killed in Spin Boldak on the Afghan side of the border and another 11 were wounded, adding that mostly civilians were harmed in the attack.

Census workers controversy
Officials in Islamabad say the fighting began after Afghan security forces fired on Pakistani census workers and the troops escorting them, killing nine civilians and wounding 42, including women and children.

Census workers were going door-to-door in villages located along the border and the Afghan government was informed, with exact coordinates of the areas shared with Kabul, Pakistan officials say.

Friday’s fighting ended when local commanders from the two armies de-escalated the situation over a hotline set up for such situations. However, hostilities reignited over the weekend over the centuries-old dispute between Islamabad and Kabul at the boundary, known as the Durand Line, which runs through villages on both sides.

Pakistan and Afghanistan routinely accuse each other of providing sanctuaries to their enemy insurgents, a charge both sides deny.

ISLAMABAD, May 4: Pemra Authority has revoked the satellite TV licences of M/s Labbaik (Pvt) Ltd namely Bol News and Bol Entertainment (Pak News) after Interior Ministry rejected security clearance of the company’s directors Shoaib A Shaikh, Ayesha Shoaib Sheikh, Viqas Atiq and Sarwat Bashir.

In its 131st Authority meeting held at Pemra Headquarters Tuesday, the authority took this decision in the light of the recommendations by the Council of Complaints (CoC) Sindh. The council had rendered its opinion after hearing the channels.

The channels have been ordered to surrender the original licenses and clear all the outstanding dues. Instructions have been given to PakSat to immediately stop the transmission of channels, which are no more Pemra’s licensees.

Through a separate order, all distribution networks and cable operators have also been directed to take these two channels off air with immediate effect. Any violation of Pemra’s order would have legal consequences for the violators and Pemra would act against the violators according to law.

The meeting was attended by member Sindh Sarfaraz Khan Jatoi, member KP Shaheen Habibullah, Member Punjab Nargis Nasir, Secretary Information Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera, Chairman PTA Dr Syed Ismail Shah and was chaired by Pemra Chairman Absar Alam.

Meanwhile, according to a report from Karachi, the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) Wednesday expressed satisfaction over the step finally taken by Pemra to revoke the licenses being held by individuals who supervised fraud and extortion on an international scale.

In a statement it said: The PBA has always been in favour of freedom of expression but has been strongly opposed to allowing media to be used to further any illegal and criminal intent. Three years ago one of the biggest International Scams was exposed by New York Times. This exposed Axact and its owners of running a Fake Degree/Diploma Mill through which they raked in millions of dollars. This is the same money that was used to finance and launch the TV Channel Bol.”

PBA was shocked at the revelation that the proceeds of crime were being channelled to launch and finance media channels to buy influence and blackmail anyone who threatens to expose this criminal scam.

Hence, PBA decided to get involved to protect the integrity and sanctity of the Media Industry which is regarded as the 4th pillar of the state. Hence PBA moved the Islamabad High Court for revocation of licenses of the channels and has since been fighting to prevent entry of this criminal money into Pakistani media industry.

Finally, PBA on behalf of all electronic media industry of Pakistan, expresses satisfaction over the step finally taken by Pemra to revoke the licenses being held by individuals who supervised fraud and extortion on an international scale.

PBA wants to further specifically point out that the parent company of channel has been prosecuted in the US by the US Justice Department and a company employee has confessed to being part of a $140 million fake degree scam run through company’s Pakistan offices. And that evidence against the company has also been handed over to the FIA by FBI.

PBA has also earlier raised many important questions through a published Ad and had asked Pemra and Government to probe if the channel had customs receipts and NOC from Pemra for any of its broadcasting equipment that all other PBA members had to get as per law.

PBA had also appealed to the courts, Pemra and the government that the channels should also be investigated for their sources of funds. The channels have been on air for more than 6 months, saying themselves on air that they are not accepting any advertising due to their “patriotism”, but where are the expenses being paid from? The authorities in Pemra and SECP should ask through what is their source of income as their paid up capital is in millions, yet billions of rupees have been spent on infrastructure and other expenses, mostly all in cash.

Ch Nisar Ali Khan (Interior Minister), Dr. Atta Ur Rahman (Co-Chairman Science, Technology and Innovation Committee of United Nations Economic Social Commission for Asia and Pacific), Jehan Ara (President Pakistan Software House Association), Anushe Rahman (Minister of IT), Aitzaz Ahsan (Senator, PPP), Dr Arif Alvi (PTI), New York Times, Guardian, BBC and Pakistani media exposed the company as a fake degree company masquerading as an IT company.

The channel backed by this company was also the biggest proponent of hate speech and intolerance and a threat to free and independent media in Pakistan and has been condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, PBA, APNS, CPNE and others. Pemra itself declared the channel as carrying hate speech again and again.

PBA calls on the government to prosecute all those responsible for committing these crimes so that things like this can be prevented in future. PBA also hopes that a proper inquiry would now be initiated to investigate the crimes committed, laws broken and how criminal money was generated, brought into Pakistan and used to finance media channels like this. This whole ugly scam has brought a bad name to Pakistan and to Pakistan’s IT and Media Industry.

PBA believes that freedom of speech is a critical element of any democracy. However unscrupulous elements enteringmedia in the guise of that freedom to whiten their black money and to blackmail the judiciary, bureaucracy, government and media to hide their own crimes, must not be allowed. On world press freedom day, this is a setback to those, who in the guise of freedom of speech were trying to get away with one of the most audacious international level criminal scams in the history of Pakistan.

Islamabad, Pakistan – A prominent leader of the Pakistani Taliban’s Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (JuA) faction, Ehsanullah Ehsan, has surrendered to security forces, the military said.

The announcement was made on Monday by Asif Ghafoor, Pakistan’s military spokesman, at a press briefing in Rawalpindi, near capital Islamabad.

Ghafoor offered no further details on the arrest, including when and where it took place.
“The people, the state and the institutions of Pakistan have made considerable progress in the betterment of the country’s security situation,” said Ghafoor.

“We have progressed to the point that the people who’ve been planning attacks on Pakistan’s soil from across the border have started to see that the situation has changed.

“In this regard, I would like to share with you that the banned Jamaat-ur-Ahrar and Tehreek e-Taliban [TTP] spokesperon Ehsanullah Ehsan has surrendered himself to security forces.”

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the capture, but Ehsan had been conspicuously absent from his prominent role in liaising with journalists since late 2016.

“If a person who is doing the wrong thing feels that they are on the wrong side and that they should come back towards good, then I don’t think there can be a bigger success of the state than this,” Ghafoor added.

JuA did not immediately offer a comment on the security forces’ claim. If true, it would mark the highest-profile surrender by a Pakistani Taliban commander in years.

In recent history, the group has carried out some of the most violent attacks in Pakistan.

PROFILE: The Pakistani Taliban
In February, more than 130 people were killed in a series of suicide attacks across Pakistan, several of which were claimed by the JuA.

It also claimed responsibility for the 2016 Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore that killed more than 70 people.
In August, the United States added JuA to its list of “specially designated global terrorists”.

The JuA was formed in August 2014 as a breakaway faction of the central TTP by the then-commander of its Mohmand district chief Omar Khalid Khorasani and Ehsan, who left his post as a central TTP spokesman.

JuA rejoined the central TTP the following March but is known to operate independently of the central TTP leadership, which is led by Mullah Fazlullah.

Pakistan army launched a countrywide counter-terrorism operation in February and claims to have killed at least 108 suspected fighters and arrested at least 4,510.

In addition, 558 suspected terrorists have surrendered to security forces since the operation was launched, according to Ghafoor.

KARACHI, April 12: The Sindh Rangers claim to have unearthed a nexus between terrorists and foreign spy agencies.
A senior paramilitary officer on Wednesday said the force has arrested at least five hardcore militants from Da’ish and al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS) who were in contact with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS).

“We arrested the five hardcore militants during a raid in the Mawach Goth area of [Karachi’s] Keamari Town,” Rangers Colonel Qaiser Khattak told a news conference at the force’s headquarters.

“We had received information through intelligence sources that trained Da’ish and AQIS militants were planning a major attack in Karachi,” he said. “Rangers saved Karachi by taking timely action against them.”

Col Khattak said the captured terrorists had received training in Afghanistan. “They [the terrorists] were part of a nexus with India’s RAW and Afghanistan’s NDS which was operating out of Balochistan,” he said. “They were communicating with each other by using SD cards.”

“A laptop containing a three-dimensional map of a highly sensitive installation in Karachi along with jihadi and anti-state literature was recovered from the militants’ possession and confirmed their ties with banned outfits,” the Rangers officer added.

The suspects arrested were identified as Tahir Zaman alias Faisal Mota Boxer, Muhammad Nawaz, Bilal Ahmed alias Kashif alias Javed, Muhammad Farhan Siddiqui and Dur Muhammad Mashadi.

Sharing details of the arrested militants, Col Khattack said Tahir Zaman received training in Afghanistan and Miramshah. He along with companions killed two cops in Korangi on January 2013. Also on January 2013, he attacked a police mobile with hand grenade, killing two cops and wounded another also in Korangi area. He also killed two workers of ethnic party in 2013.

Suspect Nawaz joined AQIS in 2012 and got training of militancy and preparing IEDs. He also used to provide information about army, intelligence and police officials to Tehreek-e-Talibam Pakistan. Another arrested militant Bilal Ahmed is a closed aide of Tahir Minhas, a key suspect in Safoora bus carnage already arrested by law enforcers. He even got training of suicide bombing. He also killed eight people belinging to Dawoodi Bohra community and Ahle Hadees on the directives of Tahir Minhas. He was also involved in a bomb blast outside a Sareena mobile market in North Nazimabad. The accused Farhan Siddiqui had joined al-Qaeda in 2008. He was also the recruitment in-charge for al-Qaeda while the accused Dur Muhammad joined al Qaeda in 2008 and was also arrested in 2009 while smuggling arms to Karachi from Sukkar. He after releasing from jail in 2014 again joined the organisation and engaged in terror activities.

Col Khattak also said Rangers have recovered eight kilogrammes of explosives, four ball bombs, four sub machineguns (SMGs), two pistols, one suicide jacket, four hand grenades and ammunitions and explosive materials. He also informed the media that the Rangers had the support of some peaceloving citizens of Karachi during this operation and they would also be awarded with special rewards on the directives of DG Rangers, Sindh.

PAKISTAN would be Asia’s and Gwadar Pakistan’s tiger with the completion of projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), said Nawaz Sharif at a recent public meeting held in Balochistan’s port city. “I am the first prime minister who stayed overnight in Gwadar as earlier the leaders neglected the area,” he remarked.

He also claimed that peace had returned to the insurgency-prone area during his tenure and gave the credit to the armed forces, police, local administration and the nation. I wish he had taken the nation into confidence regarding progress on the aspect of the National Action Plan pertaining to reconciliation with the Baloch sub-nationalists involved in a ‘low-intensity insurgency’ in their homeland. Former chief minister Dr Abdul Malik had initiated the process and also met some of the dissident leaders ensconced in European safe havens. Have policymakers in Quetta and Islamabad taken any confidence-building measures to bring about a reconciliation? I am afraid the security establishment strongly feels that any level of militancy or insurgency can be tackled with force and coercion.

Meanwhile, the London-based, self-exiled Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Ahmedzai brands China and Pakistan as ‘plunderers’ and tilts toward India to stop or subvert CPEC’s execution. He recently told the media that Indian PM Modi was a “friend of Balochistan”. Then there is Baloch Liberation Army leader Hyrbyair Marri who too is safely based in London and trying to create unrest in the Bolan Pass area near Quetta and Sibi. Similarly, Brahmdagh Bugti is inciting his followers from his cool Geneva haven to play with fire in Sui and Dera Bugti areas. Remember, these are Baloch sardars who, while living in plush European lands, cannot inspire the poor and downtrodden people of Balochistan to follow their diktat.

The festering wounds that have given impetus to the Baloch insurgency should be healed.

The real threat to the state agencies comes from the dissident Baloch youth and the Baloch Liberation Front leadership perched in the mountainous terrain around Turbat, Gwadar, Panjgur and Kharan. A bright, middle-class student, Dr Allah Nazar, started to lead the youthful insurgents in 2006. These angry young Baloch men and women are the ones who require our state security stakeholders’ attention. Instead of alienating them, efforts should be made to give them respect and listen to their voices of dissent. Their spokesmen are, in fact, those Baloch politicians who chose ballot over bullets and contested the 2013 elections. These elected leaders are not against Pakistan.

A multi-party conference (MPC) on CPEC was hos¬ted by the Balochistan National Party-Mengal in Islamabad on Jan 10, 2016. It approved the following resolutions: one, complete control of the Gwadar Port mega project should be handed over to Balochistan in accordance with the Constitution. Ownership rights and powers to make decisions on Balochistan’s resources should be accepted. Two, the unanimous resolution passed at the MPC convened by the prime minister on May 28, 2015 should be implemented in letter and spirit. CPEC’s western route should be completed first and people living in undeveloped areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochis¬tan must derive benefits from all aspects of CPEC.

Three, steps should be taken to prevent the Baloch becoming a minority in their province. There should be a complete ban on the issuance of identity cards, local certificates and passports from Gwadar to new settlers so that their names are not included in electoral rolls. Four, facilities of clean drinking water, hospitals, schools, technical colleges and centres for skilled persons related to the port and a maritime university should be established, and people of Gwadar given preference in them. Five, locals should get priority in appointments at Gwadar Port and related mega projects. Six, in order to prevent local fishermen from economic deprivation, alternative means of earning should be provided. All restrictions on people of Gwadar, including an unannounced ban on political activities, should be removed and they should be allowed freedom of movement.

Seven, people of Gwadar should be provided free medical facilities, technical training in foreign countries and scholarships in reputed educational institutions in other provinces. Eight, in order to overcome Gwadar’s backwardness, its residents should be given free education and health facilities. They should be given immunity on taxes and utility bills for three years. Nine, the confiscation of thousands of kanals of local people’s ancestral land was unjust and these should be returned to their real owners. Ten, there should be legislation to ensure partnership of local people in investment projects in Gwadar. Eleven, locals should be inducted into security forces to protect their rights and self-respect.

These resolutions by various mainstream political forces reflected a consensus that the state should have addressed so that the festering wounds that have provided impetus to the Baloch insurgency could be healed.
Another significant development was the decision to lay a railway track to connect Gwadar with the Iranian port city of Chabahar. Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri and an Iranian delegation led by the governor of the Iranian province of Sistan-Balochestan, Aaqa Ali Hosth Hashmi, reached the agreement on Jan 11, 2016 in Gwadar. Officials from both sides discussed security, drug trafficking, illegal border crossing, etc and also decided to take up plans for border trade, a new shipping service and flights from Gwadar to Iranian cities.

This appeared to me to be too good to be true. I am reminded of US ambassador Ryan Crocker’s farewell courtesy call on me in 2007 while I was IGP Balochistan. I broached the subject of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. He said it would not be feasible due to the poor law and order situation in Balochistan. I told him Pakistani security agencies were capable of providing secure transit to a pipeline parallel to the Gwadar-Karachi coastline. After some hedging, he reluctantly conceded that the project was not in US interests.

So that is it. National interests of global powers determine what goes on in our region. For once, we should start thinking what is best for us in the regional context. Neighbour Iran is too vital for us as a potential CPEC trading partner.

The strategically located and resource-rich province of Balochistan calls for mature, long-term decisions by all stakeholders, particularly the federal government and all-powerful military establishment. The voice of the Baloch should not be ignored any longer.

The writer is former IGP Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2017