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| Military might, propaganda cannot help Pakistan | | |
Samuel Baid |
Faced with widespread protests against the killing of Jamhoori Watan Party Chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in a military operation on August 26, 2006 the Pervez Musharraf Government seems to have launched a campaign to counter them. The Government has issued a 13-page charge-sheet accusing Nawab Bugti of illegally collecting money through corruption, blackmailing and drug and weapons running. The charge-sheet projects tribal leaders Kher Bux Marri and Sardar Ataullah Mengal as criminals.
An important point in Government’s self defence is the alleged role of India in the insurgency in Balochistan. Minister of State for Information Tariq Azam told foreign journalists in Islamabad on September 4, 2006 that the weapons seized from the cave where Bugti died were not manufactured by Bugti but given to him by some external power.
And who is that external power? He expressed concern at India’s large-scale presence in Afghanistan. He said: “India has only three Consulates in Britain although it has 15 lakh of its citizens there. In America, it has only four Consulates although it is a big country. But in Afghanistan, it has nine Consulates. That is a matter of concern.” He said Pakistan would raise this matter with India at a diplomatic level. General Musharraf raised this matter with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during his Kabul visit on September 6, 2006.
But at a joint press conference, Karzai said India had only four Consulates while Pakistan too had four.
The Afghan Government rejects Pakistani charge against Indian Consulates.
How effective this official propaganda is going to be in salvaging the sinking image of the Musharraf Government is to be seen. General Zia-ul-Haq, who executed deposed Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had spent crores of rupees on producing white papers to malign him. But by doing this Zia could not improve his own image or tarnish that of Bhutto. These white papers were described by Bhutto’s supporters as white lies.
It is doubtful if the Musharraf Government’s propaganda campaign can sell if at all beyond the boundaries of Punjab in Pakistan. This Government does not enjoy much credibility - more so in the eyes of minority provinces.
At a recent talking point programme of BBC (Urdu) Sardar Ataullah Mengal answered a question about weapons and India’s alleged support to the separatist movement in Balochistan. He said Balochistan was not the only province where there were arms but the whole of Pakistan was overflowing with weapons thanks to the Army. Through the Army, arms have reached all over Pakistan via Afghanistan.
In Rawalpindi a huge arms depot had exploded in 1988. After that it was not known how many arms got destroyed, how much fell into the hands of the people and how much they (the Army) sold. The Army sold weapons worth crores of rupees to the people. After the Soviets left Afghanistan, all the weapons from there came to Pakistan, he said.
About India’s alleged help to Baloch, he said, had it (India) given this help Balochistan would have become Balochistan-desh like Bangladesh. Pakistani propaganda has not at all moved Baloch and Sindhi nationalists. Till the writing of this column protests and strikes are continuing in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan at the call of Baloch leaders and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD). The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Nawaz Muslim League are two main political parties of the Alliance. In Sindh, the Sindhi nationalist parties organised protests and strikes.
The support of ARD and Sindhi nationalists may go a long way in assuaging the separatist passions one saw in Balochistan soon after the assassination of Akbar Bugti. Marri leader Kher Bux Marri told BBC (Urdu) that Baloch did not want provincial autonomy or jobs; they only want freedom from Pakistan. One listener asked Ataullah Mengal if Baloch wanted to break up their 60-year relationship with Pakistan, The Mengal Sardar replied: “Relationship is first built up and then broken up. Unfortunately, Pakistani rulers, despite all our efforts, have not allowed this relationship to build up. When this relationship has not been made, there is no question of its breaking up. We were willing for this relationship neither then (1947) nor now.....”
Two members of Ataullah Mengal’s Balochistan National Party (BNP) have resigned their provincial Assembly seats on September 5, 2006. The following day BNP’s lone member of the National Assembly resigned. The six-party alliance of Islamic parties in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had announced it would quit the coalition Government in Balochistan but later it changed its mind.
The MMA is a coalition partner in Quetta of Quaid Muslim League, which rules at the Centre. It is too early to say how the unresolved problems of Balochistan will affect Pakistan’s near future politics, but it can be said the rulers’ 60-year old indifference to the problems of the common man particularly, in minority provinces will prove fatal for Pakistan.
General Musharraf has asked Baloch to prove their love for Pakistan, but in fact it is he, a usurper of power, who must prove his love by solving the people’s problems instead of trying to suppress them by his military might and false propaganda.
A Pakistani writer believes Pakistan will not survive beyond 2020. May be, if Pakistan continues to be ruled the way it has been in the past 60 years.
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