Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal questioned Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s call for dialogue to resolve Balochistan’s problems, asking how artillery, tanks and warplanes could solve the problem if “the gun was not the solution”.
Speaking at the Balochistan National Workshop in Islamabad on Friday, Sharif called for a “grand, frank and meaningful dialogue” to address Balochistan’s issues, while stressing that taking up arms was not the solution to any problem.
Mengal, a former chief minister of Balochistan, said Sharif’s acknowledgement of past injustices against the region was nothing new.
He said previous governments had made similar acknowledgements and some had offered apologies, but that they had failed to produce meaningful change for the people of Balochistan.
“What have the people of Balochistan received apart from mutilated bodies, grieving mothers, orphaned children, destroyed homes and burned villages?” Mengal said.
He also cited the imprisonment of women and children, enforced disappearances and the continued denial of the Baloch people’s rights over their coast and natural resources.
Mengal said he agreed with Sharif that guns could not resolve political problems, but questioned the state’s use of “artillery, tanks, warplanes, gunship helicopters and other military means” in Balochistan.
“Mr Prime Minister, these are questions you may perhaps be unable to answer today while in power, but if you ever find yourself in opposition, history will certainly ask you why the path of political, democratic and meaningful dialogue was not pursued instead of force to resolve the Balochistan issue,” he said.
Mengal said the region’s people wanted justice, equality, constitutional rights, political authority and control over their resources rather than further acknowledgements and promises.
He said a settlement required an end to the use of force and military operations, the resolution of missing-person cases, the restoration of trust and guarantees of political and economic rights.
Mengal added that any attempt to begin a new chapter with Balochistan would require practical measures demonstrating that its people were equal citizens whose lives, property, resources and political rights would be protected.