In search of unity

THE Pakistan Muslim League (F) president, Pir Pagara, is hopeful about the various PML factions getting united. He has already held discussions with Mian Mohammad Azhar, Gohar Ayub Khan, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Ghous Bakhsh Maher who called on him at his Pirjo Goth residence the other day.

Pir Sahib thinks that only a united PML could handle the grave political problems facing the country.

Mian Azhar and his colleagues, who stayed for a night at Pir Pagara’s, left for Karachi where they will hold more talks about the PML unity. According to Sindh PML chief Ghous Bakhsh Maher, Pir Pagara has offered his unconditional help for reunification of PML factions.

Meanwhile, Mr Maher has planned to tour Sindh to reorganize the party to contest the forthcoming October polls. He has considerable political influence in the Shikarpur district. He says he will prefer that his constituency is merged with Sukkur in the proposed delimitation after the announcement of addition of seats to the national and provincial assemblies. His area, Chak and Wazirabad, situated in the Lakhi Ghulam Shah tehsil, is a part of Shikarpur but most of the people of his area have been working for its merger with Sukkur — because of geographical, social and economical reasons.

With the addition of some 50 per cent seats to the provincial assembly, and with more seats for women and technocrats, Mr Maher has advised the government for allocating them on a constituency basis in the whole province, because if they are allocated in bulk for a particular area, they may start disputes.

He has also shown an inclination towards an electoral adjustment with the Sindh Democratic Alliance, which is being masterminded by bureaucrat-turned-politician Imtiaz Shaikh. It seems the presence of former chief minister Liaquat Jatoi has been a compelling force for Mr Maher and Mr Shaikh to work toward an election alliance of sorts.

Mr Maher does not hide his feelings whenever told that his faction of the PML is the party of the king who wants all its other tit-bits to reunite. He says there is no harm if the founder party is brought together in this way.

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TWO-NATION THEORY: Federal Minister S. K. Tresslar stunned many people here when he said, in reply to a reporter’s question, that the two-nation theory had died with the emergence of Pakistan. He was here on a two-day visit during which he attended receptions thrown by Bhagwandas Chaula, former MNA; Fakir Gokal Chauhan, president of Bhagri Ittehad, Kandhkot; and Kandhkot Taluka Nazim Mir Imran Khan Bijarani, and the members of the Christian community at St Saviours Church, Sukkur.

At these functions, the minister also advised the members of the minority community to strive for greater unity because under the amended electoral rules, which gave them the joint electorate system, they would reap a bigger harvest than what they had got in the separate electorate system. “We are in a bargaining position, and can get through our main demands with the passage of time,” he said.

Mr Tresslar also spoke about the law which would prohibit the sale/transfer of religious properties of the minority community.

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CORRUPTION: Corruption in the education department refuses to go, although army monitoring teams have been there since Oct 12, 1999. About Rs1.2 million has been embezzled from the fund of the Government College. It is being alleged that this happened over the three-year period when the now retired district education officer held the post. The modus operandi being that all admission to BEd and MEd was virtually sold out for Rs20,000 to Rs40,000 per seat, according to some of the qualifying teachers.

The race for a BEd or an MEd degree is there because a teacher hopes to get his increments — ranging from Rs200 to Rs500 a month — after obtaining it. Interestingly, some private institutions have also started issuing BEd and MEd degrees. What one has to do is to seek admission to these institutions — attendance is not required — and at the end of the term degrees are given for which handsome fees are charged.

A retired Sindh education secretary, who has his own training college here, has also benefited from the liberal government policy of allowing the establishment of private institutions for handing out BEd and MEd degrees.

A gory incident, and a cover-up?

A youth, Asif Ansari, of Shadan Lond was kidnapped in April, 2001, from the area at gunpoint for ransom. However, the tribal people of Bozdar and Qaisrani tribes got Asif Ansari freed from the clutches of the outlaws. Two Qaisranis were injured in the scuffle with the gangsters, two of whom were overpowered and handed over to the Border Military Police.

A teenaged accomplice of the kidnappers, Ghafoor Jaffar, was seriously injured in the gunfire and died later. Another outlaw, Jamil Jaffar, was killed allegedly by the commandant of BMP after his surrender.

Akhtar Jan Khetran, another gang member, took shelter with a Qaisrani notable who handed him over to the BMP. He was then fired in the legs and made a cripple, also allegedly by the said commandant of BMP.

Due to this callous attitude of BMP and their commandant, the situation became highly tense between Jafars, Bozdars and Qaisranis living as peaceful neighbours on the Punjab-Balochistan border.

On the other hand, the outlaws roaming unscathed in the area waylaid a Balochistan-bound passenger pick-up at Walwasta and killed two Bozdars and a Mulghani youth to satiate their blood thirst for vengeance. The Bozdars laid blame of this gory incident upon the Jafars in general. The tense situation got highly inflammable.

The tribesmen came face to face and took positions armed with deadly weapons on either side of the provincial boundary line. It is noteworthy that the state functionaries of the tribal area Dera Ghazi Khan, instead of pacifying the situation, had been stoking the fire of hatred. They helped convene tribal meetings and made highly objectionable speeches there to instigate the Bozdars for taking revenge of the Walwasta killings.

Resultantly, two innocent notable Jaafars of Drug (Musa Khail) were killed by the Bozdar tribesmen. Thus BMP and its cronies succeeded in sidelining the demand of the peace-loving Bozdars, Qaisranis and Jafars for a probe into the whole bloody saga and striping off the network of local notables operating behind the gang by fuelling a tribal war.

The callousness of the state functionaries does not end on this side of the provincial (Punjab) border. The same attitude prevailed on the other side. To the dismay of every peace-loving inhabitant, these killings of five innocent people (two Bozdars, one Mulghani and two Jaafars) could not stir the deaf and dumb state functionaries in Musa Khail, who did not even bother to register FIRs of these brutal killings.

Ironically, when the interior ministry was busy propagating the seizure of large quantities of arms and ammunition in the country and emphasizing upon the indiscriminate nature of the drive against the menace, the state agencies on both sides of the provincial border were encouraging Bozdars, Qaisranis and Jaafars to get themselves armed to the teeth.

A special picket manned by BMP personnel was established at Sanghar Pass, facilitating Bozdars and Qaisranis for depositing their arms while entering in the settle area of Punjab and taking these back on their way home in the tribal area. Simultaneously, the BMP kept registering cases against tribal people under penal section of Surrender of Illicit Arms Order, 1991, whimsically and unabashedly.

A comical drama has been staged to resolve the problem through a tribal Jirga which was abandoned after playing cheap and shallow acts.

The state is nowhere visible. The peace-loving and hapless Bozdars, Qaisranis and Jaafars have been rendered helpless in the face of rascals and outlaws who are bent upon settling scores by random killing of innocents. The Drug Tausa and Fazla-Musa Khail roads have been rendered unsafe for the respective tribes on both sides.

It is pertinent to mention that the Jaafars are dependent upon the Taunsa Sharif market for their everyday living and Fazla Musa Khail road is the short cut route to Quetta for Bozdars and Qaisranis who serve in Balochistan.

It is high time to bring the fact home that the whole matter is simply a law and order affair and not a tribal feud in any way. The story started with extra-judicial killings of two Jaafar gangsters committed by BMP. To cover up the matter, the network of mafia managed the killing of two innocent Bozdars and one unrelated Mulghani just to make it a Jaafar versus Bozdar tribal feud. They did not stop there.

Their alleged cronies in BMP provoked Bozdars to settle scores resulting in the murder of two innocent Jaafars. It seems that the administration left the people at the mercy of the mafia to save the skin of the culprits. An impartial high-level judicial probe into the whole matter is required to resolve the issue so that the responsibility of extra-judicial killing can be fixed on the real perpetrator to pacify the Jaafar tribe.

At the same time, the FIRs of Walwasta killings should be lodged and the matter investigated by a reliable agency to give the relatives of the deceased Bozdars and Mulghani a definite clue to the culprits. FIRs of the murders of innocent Jaafars should also be lodged and the culprits unearthed.