WHENEVER we Pakistanis start to think that our democracy is gaining ground, however slowly, Balochistan appears in our peripheral vision and brings us back to earth. For most of us the Baloch ‘problem’ is an inconvenient fact; it troubles us because it is like festering sore that never goes away, yet it never becomes the central concern of the intelligentsia, media and mainstream political circles.

The last time that Balochistan made the news in a big way was when the relatives and well-wishers of Baloch missing persons marched from Quetta to Islamabad a year ago. Depicted as ‘human rights’ activists, the ‘long marchers’ were in fact making a big political statement about the systematic state repression that the Baloch people continue to face, and it appeared, for a while, that a significant cross-section of the Punjabi heartland was expressing something resembling solidarity with them.

Predictably, the matter receded quickly from the public eye. It is worth recalling that something similar happened during the tenure of chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry when the machinations of the state’s security apparatus — and the Frontier Corps in particular — were extensively highlighted in the Supreme Court. The issue erupted into the spotlight, hopes that justice might be done were raised, and then it all just went away as quickly as it had come to the fore.

The truth is that the state of affairs in Balochistan — and particular regions where the nationalist insurgency has established roots in recent years — is as bad as ever. Violence is ever-present, a vast majority of ordinary people are gripped by fear, and the state, its proxies and the insurgents have effectively fought one another to a stalemate, which suggests no respite in the short to medium run.

Given how much time and energy is expended by ‘experts’ and democrats on how to deal with ‘terrorism’ perpetrated by the religious right, why does the Baloch national question continue to be swept under the carpet? How much longer will we allow the matter to fester before we acknowledge the need to address it publicly just as we appear to have done with ‘terrorism’?

The Baloch question does not even enjoy nominal coverage.

In fact even the ‘debate’ on terrorism is a reflection of just how weak our democracy is. It feels like a long time ago now, but we forget at our own peril that in January, parliament relinquished its mandate and handed over powers to the military in the name of fighting ‘terror’. While the wording of the 21st Amendment allowed some parliamentarians to content themselves with the knowledge that military courts would only prosecute those associated with right-wing terror groups, the complete secrecy surrounding the first batch of convicts confirms that the men in khaki have become even more unaccountable than before.

The same parliament that mandated the creation of military courts has, over the past few days, been debating whether our uniformed guardians should jump on the Saudi bandwagon in Yemen, even while there has been acknowledgment that 1,000 or so Pakistani military personnel are in Saudi Arabia.

In short, democratic political forces are hardly running the roost. At best one could argue that they are trying to garner some measure of political space from a military that has monopolised policy space for decades. And while an optimistic reading might position parliament and democratic forces more generally in a better place vis-à-vis the military establishment compared to, say, a few years ago, Balochistan confirms that too much optimism actually prevents us from coming to terms with how much more still needs to be done.

To be sure, the Baloch national que­stion does not even enjoy nominal cove­rage on public fora, parliament included. An indication of just how tight the security apparatus’ leash is came earlier this week when an event entitled ‘Un-Silencing Balo­chistan’ scheduled to be held at the Lahore University of Management Sciences was prevented from going ahead, apparently due to the intervention of an intelligence agency. Speakers at the event included the leaders of last year’s long march, journalists and academics.

So where does our democracy stand given that a public discussion on the Baloch national question at one of the country’s most prestigious — and elitist — universities was not allowed to go ahead by the proverbial guardians of the ‘national interest’? When will the state stop conceiving of the Baloch as disloyal and threatening just as colonial masters conceived of their subjects? How meaningful is it to call Pakistan’s political order democratic when an exception as significant as Balochistan continues to exist?

We do not all have to consider the Baloch national movement legitimate to recognise that the state’s posture towards the Baloch people is illegitimate. Indeed, Balochistan remains the biggest test of our fledgling democracy.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2015

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