Education makes or breaks a nation and teachers being synonymous to education serve as the backbone in the development of any nation.

The wave of target killing of teachers has brought the education system in Balochistan to a standstill. Safety concerns have prompted a large number of government teachers of Punjabi or Urdu-speaking backgrounds, who were scattered all over the province, to run to the main city of Quetta or to the country's other provinces while bringing a halt to the functioning of schools in Balochistan.

With the teachers not coming to work, there has been a significant drop in students' attendance, too. And not knowing what to do the concerned parents are left in the lurch.

One wonders why teachers have been selected predominantly for target killing and why the political and tribal leaders including government functionaries have their lips sealed on this matter.

A similar campaign was launched during the 1970s, too, and many intellectuals in the province today say that they have not been able to fully come out of that negative fall out some 40 years ago.

Even then, local female teachers were not available and the government had been compelled to recruit female teachers from Southern Punjab's districts adjacent to Balochistan such as Zhob, Killa Saifullah and Loralai. They had come to Balochistan due to their economic compulsions but with the passage of time their relationship with the people of the province grew stronger and they mingled with the local community.

The present security situation where the sons of the soil are targeting their own teachers while trying to get them out of Balochistan has seen some 25 senior PhDs, including Dr Masoom Zai, Dr Semi Naghmana Tahir, Dr Mansoor Ahmed Kundi, Dr Nadir Bakht, Dr Shafiq-ur-Rehman, already transferring to other parts of the country from the University of Balochistan.

The current situation got worse when Assistant Professor Mrs Nazima Talib, an assistant professor in the mass communications department at the university was targeted outside the institute last month. There are almost 200 teachers affiliated with the University of Balochistan in Quetta. Of them 70 submitted applications for transfer after the incident. As the government has imposed a ban on transfers, they either opted to go on long leaves or resign.

The Government Degree College, Quetta, which had remained closed for two years and had only just reopened, does not have any teacher willing to conduct classes there. As it is, the college is situated on Sariab Road, which is a no go area these days.

Other cases of target killing are as follows

• Prof Safdar Kiani, University of Balochistan's acting vice chancellor was attacked on April 22, 2008, while taking his usual evening walk.

• Mr Shafiq Ahmed Khan, the provincial education minister, was targeted just outside his house on November 25, 2009 .

• Prof Khurshid Ansari of the department of library sciences at the University of Balochistan was targeted, also in November 2009, when he was heading towards a mosque for his Isha prayers.

• Prof Mirza Amanat Ali Baig, principal, Government College of Commerce, Quetta, was targeted outside the institute gates in 2009.

• Former Chairman, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education and Principal of Tameer-i-Nau College, Prof Fazle Bari was killed along with his driver on the morning of March 22, 2010, while on their way to his college.

They are all martyrs. For all those who lost their lives, there are also a few who escaped the attacks such as Prof Jamshed Ahmed, ex vice principal of Govt Degree College, Quetta, who survived a hand grenade attack on April 12, 2009. Prof Riaz and Prof Furqan of Tameer-i-Nau also survived similar hand grenade attacks at their respective houses.

In another similar attack Mr Noman, the director of a private college survived but his daughter was killed. Mr Hamid Mahmood, secretary of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, was shot at on the morning of October 31, 2009, while on his way to his office. The bullet penetrated his head and he is still fighting for his life at the Al Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad. The list of injured or maimed educationists is extensive.

Balochistan's Bolan, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Kech, Awaran, Kharan, Noshki, Chagai and Panjgor districts have already been vacated by the settlers with all educational institutes there becoming non functional with the lack of interest from the local teachers.

The recent statements from the government regarding the Balochistan package and establishment of colleges and universities in the province are only but political statements. For what are we going to do with these empty buildings without the teachers to properly run the institutions?

The quality of education in Balochistan was already in doubt but this issue threatens to take the people of this province back to the Stone Age.