KARACHI: The prince of the defunct Kalat state, Mohyuddin Baloch, has said the security agencies which have been engaged in an operation against militancy in Balochistan since 1999 have failed to bring about any change in ground realities and now outside forces and neighbouring countries have jumped in.

“If we fail to find a solution to our problem soon, international players may further complicate the issue,” he said and recalled that a US senator had lent support to the Baloch separatist movement while making a speech in Congress in February last year.

The prince, who had remained a federal minister for communications during the Zia era, told a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Monday that he had made an offer to the government which had not received any answer so far that if he be given all powers except currency, defence and foreign policy for three years he would bring back Balochistan to normality.

“If you don’t put your house in order, outsiders will intervene. It is the need of the hour to reach some understanding with those who are abroad and disengage Frontier Constabulary from militants,” he said.

He said that regrettably, the 1973 Constitution had been on a ventilator since July 5, 1977 and all affairs of the country were being run by businessmen.

The establishment which was busy now negotiating with the ‘two persons’ in Islamabad did not pay any heed to the Baloch elderly and women who staged a long march on foot from Quetta to Islamabad, he said.

“This attitude shows the establishment is not interested in the Baloch but only in Balochistan but it must know that Balochistan is not Bengal. If Balochsitan separates, there’ll be left no country by the name of Pakistan,” he remarked.

The prince who is also head of his own Baloch Rabita-Ittefaq Tehreek briefly shed light on the history of the Balochistan issue and said the problems being faced by the province today were not new, they started cropping up since Pakistan came into being and successive governments made attempts to resolve it either through political manoeuverings or military action.

He said the population in Balochistan was scattered with no big cities where people could take to the streets to record their protest and draw Islamabad rulers’ attention to the injustices inflicted on them by the establishment.

Therefore, he said, the wronged people often resorted to cutting wires and attacking four wheel vehicles etc.

The prince said that genuine elections had not been held in Balochistan since 1988 and people had not exercised their right to vote to elect their representatives. The people who reached the assemblies did so with the help of the establishment, he claimed.

He recalled that peace reigned supreme in the province when he was federal minister and not a single bullet was fired.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2014