ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday offered to visit Balochistan’s dissident ‘elder politicians’ and announced decisions to release all political workers not involved in heinous crimes and pullout of troops from two hotspots as some of the first steps to implement a government package to pacify the troubled province.

He also called upon young Baloch dissidents — some of whom have taken up arms in a low-intensity insurgency — to join the national mainstream and announced more job opportunities for the youth and abolition of some road checkposts of security agencies as he wound up a two-day debate in a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament on a 39-point package unveiled last month.

While voicing his hope that estranged Baloch political leaders and workers would accept a dialogue offer he made while announcing the package to a similar joint sitting on Nov 24, the prime minister said in a prepared Urdu speech: ‘I am prepared to go to the homes of elder politicians in pursuing the path of understanding and reconciliation.’

He did not specify these ‘elder’ politicians, but he seemed to be referring to two nationalist tribal chieftains — former provincial chief minister Ataullah Khan Mengal and former National Assembly member Khair Bakhsh Marri — who had long been at odds with the centre and are widely regarded as the main inspiration for Baloch dissidents, some of whom seek more provincial autonomy and control over the natural resources of the country’s largest but least-populated province but some — possibly closer to hardliner Marri — dreaming of a future outside the Pakistani federation.

‘I will also ask the estranged youth that they join the national mainstream,’ said Mr Gilani, whose speech was repeatedly cheered with desk-thumping by lawmakers from the PPP-led ruling coalition and sometimes by opposition as well.

Army pullout
Referring to a series of administrative measures proposed by the package prepared by a parliamentary committee headed by PPP senator Raza Rabbani, the prime minister said army had been withdrawn from Kohlu cantonment on Wednesday on his orders and replaced by the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and that he had also issued orders for the replacement of army by FC soon at Sui, which has the country’s main gas field located in the troubled Dera Bugti district and had been a major trouble spot before and after the killing of former provincial governor Akbar Khan Bugti.

He said the process had begun to create three FC ‘wings’ in which Baloch youth would be employed.

The prime minister said that while a parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms was making progress on the issue of provincial autonomy of which it would ‘soon’ inform the house, ‘our government has taken solid steps in connection with political matters (and) decided to release all political workers who are not involved in any other heinous crime’.

The prime minister’s announcement indicated he had not been able to accept a demand made by several members from both the opposition and the ruling alliance to grant a general amnesty for Balochistan without the proviso of involvement in ‘heinous crimes’, an allegation often levelled against dissidents.

Mr Gilani thanked leaders of opposition parties for their cooperation in the task, which was an ‘effort we made not only to solve problems with realism but also make arrangements so there is no scope for their recurrence in the future’.

While repeating his offer of what he called ‘the hand of friendship to estranged Baloch brothers’ in his Nov 24 speech, he engaged in some rhetoric to say : ‘I am sure if we hold each other’s hands with confidence and sincerity, we will prove a nation like an impregnable wall against which any colliding power will crash into pieces.’

The prime minister announced the reopening of the Mand border point with Iran, saying this was being done in accordance with the wishes of the Baloch people, and abolition of seven checkposts at Othal, Lehri, Sheela Bagh, Gawal Islamzai, Zero point Turbat on the coastal highway and Sheikh Wasal.

Missing persons
He said investigations by ‘our institutions’ had put the number of Baloch ‘missing persons’ allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies at 992 and that 262 of them had already returned to their homes while the ‘remaining all such innocent people also will, God-willing, reunite with their kith and kin soon’.

Necessary process has also begun to inquire into death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and the murder of political workers Balach Marri, Ghulam Mohammad, Lala Munir and Munir Ahmad, he said.

Some other salient points of the prime minister speech are:
- Decision taken to review the role of federal agencies in Balochistan while FC replaces army.

- The policy to convert ‘B’ areas to ‘A’ areas being reviewed and steps being taken to bring law-enforcing role of the FC under the provincial chief minister.

- An amount of one billion rupees released for the internally displaced persons of Dera Bugti.

- Orders issued for the payment of Rs120 billion arrears of gas development surcharge from 1954 to 1991 in 12 years.

- Balochistan representatives appointed on PSO and OGDC boards while the appointment of the province’s representatives on the boards of two other companies to be made in the next two weeks.

- The government to provide employment to every graduate from Balochistan while implementation of the announcement of 5,000 jobs in addition to the provincial quota has begun, government to arrange training and guidance for Baloch citizens for jobs abroad and locals to be given employment in coastguard for which minimum qualification has been reduced to middle from matriculation.

- Under Youth Internship programme, 10,000 Baloch youths to be employed.

Indian interference
At the end of his speech, before the sitting was prorogued by a presidential order, the prime minister dismissed some opposition members’ allegations of contradictions between the statements of interior and foreign ministries about foreign interference in Balochistan.

He recalled raising the issue of alleged Indian interference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their meeting at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh earlier this year and its mention in a joint statement and said: ‘I assure (you) that we are prepared to present proofs we have about interference in Balochistan to any forum and at any time as required.’