Withhold till Pak stops military action in
Balochistan
New Delhi, June 11: Leading experts on global affairs have asked
Washington to withhold aid to Islamabad till it ceased military activity
in Balochistan, media reports said.
Selig Harrison and Frederic Grare, noted American experts on South Asia,
have been quoted by Pakistani media as saying that the situation in
Balochistan could not only intensify the "long-simmering ethnic unrest" in
neighbouring Sindh but also become a "cauldron of fresh tension" between
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Harrison, who is director of the Asia programme at the Washington-based
Center for International Policy, said: “In my view, future US military and
economic aid to Islamabad should be withheld until (President Pervez)
Musharraf stops his military repression of Balochistan and enters into
serious negotiations with Baloch leaders.
"Pakistan is likely to become increasingly ungovernable in the absence of
a political settlement with the Baloch," he said at a recent seminar
organised by the United States Institute of Peace, according to reports in
leading Pakistani dailies.
He warned that continued military confrontation in Balochistan could well
intensify the long-simmering ethnic unrest in Sindh and involving a
variety of anti-Musharraf groups around Pakistan.
Observing that it was "tough to know" what exactly was going on in the
province bordering Afghanistan, Harrison said, "we know that Pakistan
still gets Sui gas from Balochistan to meet 22 per cent of its gas needs.
We know that the Central government has consistently refused to pay fair
royalty for that gas to Balochistan for its development."
He said the situation in the province was unclear because the army itself
does not officially acknowledge that there was an ongoing operation there
and had prohibited journalists from visiting the area.
"This policy in my view should be reversed, not only to stop the carnage,
but also because the US has a major strategic stake in a peaceful
accommodation between Islamabad and the Baloch leaders," Harrison said.
Frederic Grare, a senior expert attached with the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, said the issue could become a "cauldron of fresh
tension with Afghanistan which has been at a bitter war of words with
Musharraf over the rebel issue".
While Afghanistan blames Pakistan for supporting Taliban or turning a
blind eye to Taliban operations from its "lawless borders", Islamabad
denies the charge saying it is battling Taliban and al Qaeda-linked
militants, he said.
Grare said the mutual recrimination between the two neighbours because of
the Baloch issue "may eventually degenerate and clearly it will be an
additional incentive for the two countries to continue this war of words.
"We know where we are now, (but) we don't know where we will be in some
time to come," he warned.
Zee News Bureau Report 11.6.06 |
