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Thursday March 28, 2024

Baloch insurgents were willing to talk in 2009 but PPP missed the chance

ISLAMABAD: Although Baloch insurgents have now publicly shown their willingness to negotiate, they were ready to do so during PPP government, however, the efforts failed to make any headway due to spoilers among the civilian set-up. In 2009, some top bureaucrats having experience of serving in Balochistan had established contacts

By Umar Cheema
August 28, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Although Baloch insurgents have now publicly shown their willingness to negotiate, they were ready to do so during PPP government, however, the efforts failed to make any headway due to spoilers among the civilian set-up.
In 2009, some top bureaucrats having experience of serving in Balochistan had established contacts with Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud Khan and others in order to convince them to have dialogue for settling the disputed matters, an official who had approached them confided to The News.
“Khan of Kalat had responded positively,” said the official. He was optimistic of bringing others to the negotiating table provided the government demonstrated seriousness to address their grievances.
President Asif Zardari was also excited to hear this news, according to the officials privy to contacts. All was set to approach them formally when a hyper-active and credit-hungry minister stepped in.
“We were told that the minister was already making efforts to reach them out through his own channel,” according to an official. No progress has been heard about the minister’s efforts since then.
The efforts have only materialized recently under the watch of the new government.
Khan of Kalat was the first to declare that he was ready to end his exile dating back 2006 if the right environment was promised.
His words gained further credence when the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, Brahamdagh Bugti expressed his willingness to negotiate with the government, giving up his demand of a separate country. Almost all Baloch nationalist leaders who opted for insurgency are linked with each other either through blood relations or historic ties spanning decades. Mehran Marri, for instance, is married to Brahamdagh Bugti’s sister. They are closely associated with Akhtar Mengal who is in Pakistan right now. Mengal’s brother, Javed, is married to Mehran’s sister. “These inter-tribal marriages have tied them together,” according to an official source.
As the PPP was voted to power, Asif Zardari had offered public apology to the Baloch people for the excesses committed over decades, expressed his resolve to negotiate with the insurgents and announced Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package (AHBP). AHBP was approved by Parliament in November 2009 as the PPP government had decided to take initiative on a number of policy issues including constitutional, administrative, political and economic.
A cabinet committee was constituted to supervise the implementation process. The establishment division was declared the secretariat for the said cabinet committee to coordinate implementation while actual implementation was done by respective ministries and departments.
More than 20 review meetings were held to examine the progress on AHBP including eight meetings held in 2012 and 2013. Last such meeting was held on April 23, 2013. However, no progress could be made on the negotiation front.