QUETTA, Sept 9: Political leaders, lawyers and members of civil society have called upon the federal and provincial governments to set up a “high-powered action group” with a mandate to contact stakeholders, including separatists, to bring an end to unrest in Balochistan.

The suggestion was made in speeches at a seminar organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association on Sunday to discuss ways and means to pave the way for a political settlement in the province.

A declaration called for recovery of missing persons, arrest of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti’s killers and release of political prisoners.

The declaration noted that even the presence of Frontier Corps and a number of intelligence agencies had not brought peace.

Human rights activist Asma Jahangir feared that next general elections would not be fair in Balochistan.

“If fair elections in a peaceful atmosphere are not held the crisis will deepen,” she said.

She said it must be decided whether transparent elections would be held or agencies would be allowed to rig the polls. Ms Jahangir elaborated that rigged elections would put the stability of the country at stake.

The seminar called for setting up an enquiry commission to pay compensation to victims of the conflict in the province.

Ms Jahangir said had the Chief Justice of Pakistan taken a suo motu notice of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s murder in 2006, the situation would not have deteriorated as it was now.

The declaration demanded the politics of garrison should be replaced by the civilian authorities that genuinely represented the will of the people.

It was demanded in the deceleration that “the Supreme Court Bar Association once again calls upon parliament to set up an inter-parliamentary committee to prepare a white paper on human rights violations perpetrated in Balochistan during the Musharraf regime to the present day”.

The report should be discussed in parliament.

Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai called upon the government to change its Afghan policy for restoring peace in the country.

He said that it was responsibility of political parties to get united on the issue to find a solution.

Mir Sadiq Umrani of the PPP said the province was facing unemployment and having no representation in federal departments, corporations, foreign missions and policy making institutions at the federal level.

He criticised the performance of the Raisani government and claimed that billions of rupees were embezzled in the province.

He said that Islamabad should change its mindset about Balochistan that would pave the way for political solution.

Sardar Sanaullah Zehri of the PML-N said that military dictators, who were responsible for separation of East Pakistan, have now adopted the same attitude towards Balochistan. “Despite all these atrocities we still want to live in Pakistan, but Islamabad should ensure our rights,” he said.

Sardar Zehri demanded that the Balochistan representation should be increased by three fold in the National Assembly because presently Balochistan have only 13 seats in the house.

Dr Jahanzaib Jamaldini of the BNP (Mengal) said the conference had one positive thing that it invited guests from all over the country. He said the word ‘disgruntled Baloch’ was a contemptuous word for the Baloch because hatred was not developed in a one day rather it was result of 64 years long deprivations.

He said the rivers of Punjab and their revenue went to Punjab but all the revenue of Sui gas, Reko Diq, Chamalang and coast of 780 km went to Islamabad.

The president of the Balochistan Bar Association Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani said that everyone said that FC was involved in the cases of missing persons, adding that a government report on missing persons also said that several evidences suggested that FC was involved in all the saga of missing persons.

Qadir Baloch of the PML-N said that nobody spoke of independence before the Musharraf era and Balaach Marri had taken an oath of allegiance to the Pakistani constitution when he had been elected for National and Provincial assembly membership in 2002 and 2007.

He suggested that a commission should be formed to investigate if military operation was necessary in 2005.

Dr Hayee Baloch said that Balochistan was never a part of India historically and in 1948 both the houses of Kalat had unanimously decided to remain independent.

“The province was forcibly merged with Pakistan and since then by various tactics they were trying to turn Baloch into Red Indians.”

“More than two million Afghan refugees have been enlisted in voters’ list to convert the Baloch into a minority in Quetta,” he said.

Dr Malik Baloch of the National Party said that interference of intelligence agencies should be stopped because secret hands had deteriorated the situation.

The SCBA announced to monitor next elections in the province and report pre- and post-election activities.