Balochistan logjam

There is no sign yet of a political breakthrough in Balochistan. We have heard from everyone - from the president and prime minister to the parliamentarians involved in negotiations - that their aim was a political solution. But nothing has materialized yet to make one believe that things are proceeding in the right direction. On the one hand, all sides go so far as to suggest amendments to the Constitution; on the other - in stark contrast - what we find is a logjam that persists. Precisely what the two parliamentary committees have achieved is not clear.

If they are sorting the issue out quietly and the negotiations are at a delicate stage, then perhaps we should wait. But the ground reality is that there is a lot of tough talk, while terrorist activity goes on. On Monday, a railway track was again blown up, this time the main line. So was a microwave repeater station.

Last week, electric installations were bombed in Sibi. By any standards, these are grave provocations and do not at all serve to generate sympathy for those fighting for Balochistan's grievances. Gas is used by millions of people throughout the country, and the railway lines and the power grids serve all citizens, including those of Balochistan. Destroying them only retards the province's progress.

The government has repeatedly pledged to safeguard vital installations. This duty and the resolve to do so need not be flaunted. Understandably, any government caught in such a situation has to exercise restraint. As examples from history show, over-reaction hurts even the innocent and helps recruit more people to the saboteurs' cause - whosoever they are.

The government must, therefore, exercise restraint while doing its duty. Some Baloch nationalists hold "the agencies" responsible for these acts of terrorism. Given the agencies' track record, one can understand if this charge finds acceptance in some quarters. But sabotage on such a scale cannot go unpunished for reasons of political expediency.

The government must order a comprehensive inquiry, unmask the faces behind this criminal activity, and bring the terrorists to justice. Some elements are also carrying out sabotage activity in two Punjab districts bordering Balochistan. Their aim is to incorporate these districts into Balochistan. This is absurd. Under no circumstances can anyone be allowed to redraw provincial boundaries by force.

Coming back to the political question again, basically, all this trouble stems from a lack of justice to the people of Balochistan, the country's biggest province territorially. The search for a formula that should satisfy the just demands of the Baloch must continue unceasingly. Leaders and parties from outside Balochistan have supported Baloch leaders on their stand and expressed solidarity with them. This should not only help lower tensions but find mediators acceptable to the two sides.

Mega development projects must be set up in Balochistan. They are not going to transform the lives of ordinary Baloch overnight, but will help generate employment, bring more land under cultivation, and open inaccessible areas of the Makran coast to traffic and tourism.

The Gwadar port, of course, has the potential to turn into a major source of trade for Pakistan and Central Asia. But all this development activity must primarily benefit the local people. Baloch leaders must be listened to. The two mainstream parties, the PPP and the PML-N, besides the MMA, must play a helpful role in defusing the situation and finding a political solution.

An inexplicable increase

The increase in power rates for residential consumers using less than a thousand units per months seems quite inexplicable and, to say the least, is an extremely regressive measure. The state electricity regulator's approval of this, while simultaneously granting a reduction in the tariff for those consuming over 1,000 units a month as well as commercial, industrial and agricultural users, further raises questions about its ability to protect the interest of the bulk of common consumers.

The government and Wapda will be quite hard-pressed to explain the rationale of increasing power rates, by 2.5 per cent, for a segment of the population that is already burdened with high petrol and gas prices (both were raised significantly only recently) and whose incomes are already being squeezed by an inflation rate which has now, according to the government's own estimate, is more than nine per cent.

The reduction in rates for commercial and industrial users might make sense in that it would lower production costs and might well have a dampening effect on inflation. However, the tariff change for domestic consumers an apathetic attitude towards those in low and middle income groups.

In fact, what should have been done is a lowering of the tariff for domestic consumers whose electricity consumption is less than 1,000 units a month. This kind of pricing 'strategy' is yet another example of a policy stance that contradicts the government's oft-trumpeted slogan of poverty alleviation.

Surely, official economists know that expenditure on electricity takes up a larger proportion of a poor or low-income household's monthly budget than in the case of an affluent family. Besides, the latter should also be in a position to pay a higher electricity bill. But despite that, the opposite is being done, with those barely in a position to feed themselves and their families because of ever-rising prices, being required to bear higher and higher cost of power they consume.

If the argument is for Wapda to reduce its huge financial deficits, a better way of doing so would be to require that body to reduce its enormous line losses and payment defaults by bulk consumers. That would have rendered any tariff increase need wholly unnecessary.

Targeting journalists

The deaths of two journalists in Wana and the filing of a sedition case against two Karachi-based journalists is proof that practitioners of this difficult profession in the country often have to face more than their fair share of occupational hazards. The two journalists killed were on their way back from covering a surrender ceremony when they were caught in an ambush.

In all probability those behind this act were elements opposed to the amnesty deal and the government's policy in the region. But the journalists were only doing their duty, and it is cruel that they should have been so brutally murdered. The government must act swiftly to catch the culprits and consider steps to provide security to journalists caught up in difficult situations.

It should itself stop harassing the press, as evidenced by the filing of cases under the Official Secrets Act against the reporter and editor of a Karachi newspaper. Their alleged crime seems to be the publication of a report which, according to Sindh's home minister, has harmed the national interest.

The report in question was based on official correspondence between a senior official of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC), a federal body tasked with fighting terrorism, and his counterparts in the provincial bureaucracies. Without going into the details of the correspondence, it would be fair to point out that the letter's existence has not been denied. Second, given the nature of the NCMC and its mandate, it is debatable whether publishing a report based on correspondence with provincial officials is against the national interest.

In any case, if the Sindh government is upset over the report, it should have taken up the matter with the federal government. The cases against the two journalists seem like yet another attempt to browbeat the press, and should be withdrawn. The whole business of Official Secrets Act needs to be reviewed.