Certified traitors

This refers to the news report, ‘APC reaches consensus on corridor’ (May 29). This is welcome news. Apparently the government has conceded to first build the western route of the corridor which is the shortest distance between Gwadar and Kashgar. But why was the government labelling those calling for executing the original plan as traitors? Have they now ceased to be traitors?
One wonders for how long this ugly practice of awarding traitor certificates to opponents will continue. If we look back in our history, starting from Fatima Jinnah, many of our mainstream leaders – Ghaffar Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, invariably all Baloch leaders and even the sitting PM Nawaz Sharif after the 1999 coup – had been labelled as traitors. But unfortunately, we have not learnt from history. Let us see who is next in line. Regarding the corridor, the government has to overcome many hurdles to execute the western route. The biggest worry is security for construction contractors, economic units staff and for cargo fleets all the way from Balochistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Masood Khan
Jubail, Saudi Arabia