Peace Movement’s call for amity, national integration

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

With a white cotton cap placed firmly on head and his chador spread casually on his left arm, the well-built Pukhtun with a heavy graying moustache walked on to the rostrum and tried to be humble. He said that he was no intellectual but the most enlightening speech that was made in the Zubair Mir Hall of Peshawar Press Club on Saturday came from him. In his loud and clear Pushto, Ali Ahmad Salar roared: "Ze jatt saray um!" (Take me for a peasant out and out). However, the analysis of the current situation that he offered carried the flavour and straightforwardness of his leader late Major Mohammad Ishaq, who united the evicted peasants in the historical Hashtnagar uprising and motivated them to join or support his left-wing Mazdoor Kissan Party.

The giant poster displayed in the press club said that the Amn Tehrik (peace movement) condemned the 'target killing' of Mir Maula Bakhsh Dashti of the National Party and former senator Habib Jalib of Balochistan National Party. Former nazim of Turbat City, Dashti was gunned down in his native town on July 18. Similarly, secretary-general of BNP and senior Supreme Court lawyer, Jalib was standing outside the shop of his brother when he was gunned down by three gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire at him near Musa Colony on Quetta's Sariab Road.

Speakers in the press club event condemned the killings of the above two leaders and tried to analyse the factors and circumstances that caused their assassination. President of Peshawar Press Club, Shamim Shahid, said that the curse of target killing originated in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) where hundreds of local Maliks were physically eliminated. The curse later struck the scenic Valley of Swat, where prominent political figures were targeted or attempts were made on their lives. Naming at least a dozen of the assassinated persons, Shamim said that the number of prominent people killed over the period exceeded 2, 000.

When the host, Idrees Kamal, asked Mukhtar Bacha to take his turn and introduce the guest from Balochistan, Rahat Malik, the latter stopped the host to do that as Bacha was much senior to Malik and should, therefore, be the last speaker in order of seniority. Malik had so much to grumble about that one was reminded of lines from Ghalib: "Pur hoon yoon shikway se ho saz se jaisay baja; ik zara chaireaye phir dekheaye kia hota hai!"

Malik was of the opinion that target killing was probably being done by the supporters of the so-called "Greater Balochistan". He claimed that supporters of this dream wanted to carve out for themselves the district of Dera Ghazi Khan from Punjab, parts of the province of Seestan in Iran and some stretch of land in Afghanistan which, they believed, contained pockets of the Balochi-speaking population.

Being the only one among guests that spoke in Urdu, Malik claimed that for the last 30 years he had been working with Baloch leaders such as Mir Ghaus Bux Bizenjo, his son Senator Hasil Bizenjo, Habib Jalib and many others. However, he was still considered as a Punjabi settler with the result that like several other non-Balochis he was living in Rawalpindi as an internally displaced person. He said that when he visited Quetta to see his shop there, an attempt was made on his life. He managed to escape unhurt but two other innocent persons lost their lives for no fault of theirs. He said that he had so far escaped two such attempts. He said that many other non-Balochi IDPs were facing hardships in Karachi and other cities. He said that he had been writing about the poor plight of non-Balochis in various papers.

He narrated an incident in which a trader, Nazar Khan Achakzai, was kidnapped and the men holding him captive reportedly demanded Rs40 million for his release. The family complained that the amount was too big for them to be paid. Feeling infuriated at the 'excuse', the captors allegedly chopped off one of the trader's fingers and dispatched it to the family saying now they could pay Rs3.8 million! When the family continued to show hesitation, the kidnappers killed the trader.     

Taking his turn, senior left-wing leader Mukhtar Bacha called upon the downtrodden and less privileged people to get united to create greater national cohesion and understanding. He said that the better-organised working class could frustrate the designs of the forces of evil, which wanted anarchy, instability and bloodshed in the country. He said that peace within the country and friendship with neighbours was the need of the hour but this need was not being met properly. Disagreeing with Malik, he said that supporters of a national movement could not possibly indulge in target killing.

He said that the forces of fundamentalism appeared to have joined hands with the political establishment, which in turn was throwing its weight around with the world powers insisting at times for its pound of flesh. Showing his disgust with the decadent system, he said that the ideals for which the Muslims of the subcontinent had carved out an independent home for themselves appeared to have dissipated in the air.

Mukhtar Bacha somehow believed that the homeland which the Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah handed down to the new nation had swung apart and the value system that the countrymen inherited had vanished. Speaking in the context of target killings, he said that the Pakistan of today was somewhat like a jungle in which everyone appeared to have lost his way. "And the jungle was on fire!" added someone sitting on the second row thus providing the much-needed comic relief in the political debate that was becoming a little dry and those on sidelines had started slipping out one by one.

Others who spoke on the occasion included a representative of the civil society, Ejaz Durrani, the information secretary of Awami National Party, Arbab Tahir Khan, Engineer Haider Zaman and Arbab Mujib Khan.