Date:04/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/04/stories/2006090404441400.htm

International

Baloch Alliance quits seats

Nirupama Subramanian

Huge rally against Bugti's killing

ISLAMABAD: The fall-out from the Bugti killing continued on Sunday with the four-party Baloch Alliance announcing its resignation from its parliamentary and provincial Assembly seats.

The party has one Senator, one member in the National Assembly and two in the provincial Assembly.

The Alliance announced its decision at a massive protest rally that it held jointly with the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan.

Cracks in coalition

Eyewitnesses reported this was the first political rally of its size in Balochistan in recent memory.

Protesters raised slogans against the Musharraf regime and the Army and against the domination of Pakistan by Punjabis. The eyewitnesses said they were surprised also to hear slogans demanding freedom from Pakistan.

The killing has reverberated within the ruling coalition too. The provincial head of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and a district-level functionary of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) in Balochistan quit their posts in protest.

Those supporting the Balochistan nationalist cause are hoping that the resignation of the Baloch Alliance from its seats in the Senate and in the Assemblies will have a domino effect, and prompt other parties to take similar action.

The Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six religious parties, which is a partner in the ruling coalition in the province with the PML (Q), said it would decide on September 5 whether or not to quit the Government.

Liaquat Baloch, a leader of the MMA, said the decision had been left to the provincial unit of the alliance.

Four retired army generals have criticised President Musharraf for the operation against Nawab Bugti, describing it as "an ill-conceived idea" and a "badly-handled" operation.

The Daily Times reported that Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, former chief of army staff, said even worse than the operation itself was the Government's failure to hand over the Nawab's body to his family.

The former ISI head, Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, demanded a suo motu enquiry by the Supreme Court. "Responsibility should be fixed and the nation, which has to pay the price for this action, must know the facts," he said.

Lt. General Talat Masood predicted the Balochistan insurgency would intensify, while former military intelligence chief Asad Durrani criticised the Government for trying to resolve a political problem militarily.

The controversy over the body got more fuel with a son of Nawab Bugti saying that the watch, spectacles and a ring exhibited at the funeral as belonging to his father, were not his.