Editorial: Worse Than Raisani
The Pakistan Muslim League (P.M.L.-N) has attained the required support to form a coalition government in Balochistan after the Pakhtunkhawa Milli Awami Party (P.K.M.P) of Mahmood Khan Achakzai and the National Party of Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch announced to join the next administration. The new coalition partners have decided to keep the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (J.U.I.-Fazal) and [...]
Editorial: The Reluctant Nationalist
The Balochistan National Party (B.N.P.) of Sardar Akhtar Mengal has rejected the results of May 11 polls and launched a massive protest campaign against what it calls as the rigged polls. The Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party and the National Party, which performed beyond expectations, are neither a part of Mr. Mengal’s protest nor are they [...]
Editorial: How Nawaz Sharif Can Help Balochistan
Political parties that won Saturday’s general elections in Balochistan have already initiated contacts among themselves to form a coalition government. According to the results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party has emerged as the largest political party with 11 seats in the Balochistan Assembly which is followed by the [...]
Editorial: Elections Over; But Where Are the Balochistan Results?
The Election Commission of Pakistan (E.C.P.) has not released the official results of Saturday’s elections nearly 24 hours after the counting of the votes began. The delay in the release of the official results is eventually causing panic among some political parties that are now complaining about alleged rigging and mismanagement of the polls. The [...]
Editorial: Elections With a Positive Outcome in Balochistan
Saturday’s general elections in Balochistan largely remained peaceful, transparent and productive despite the lowest voters’ turnout probably ever witnessed in the history of the province. Voters’ turnout is hardly given much consideration while judging the success of an election as long as a candidate is elected and all political parties are provided a level playing field in [...]
Editorial: Balochistan: Elections on Gunpoint
Throughout its history, Balochistan has never witnessed controversial and shady elections like what we are experiencing in 2013. With the international election observers, including those from the European Union, refraining from visiting Balochistan to monitor the fairness of the elections, the polls have have nearly lost credibility in the first place. The government, particularly the [...]
Editorial: Attack(s) on Dr. Malik Baloch
The President of the National Party and former senator Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch narrowly escaped another assassination attempt on Monday morning in his native Kech District. Dr. Baloch’s National Party (N.P.) comprises of the Baloch middle class educated people who believe in peaceful, democratic struggle within the federation of Pakistan while striving to win maximum autonomy for [...]
Editorial: National Party-J.U.I-F Nexus
The National Party (N.P.) has taken a dramatic decision to support the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (J.U.I.-Fazal) in Khuzdar district against the candidate of the Balochistan National Party (B.N.P.-Mengal). This move has attracted considerable criticism from Baloch nationalist quarters for a number of reasons. Firstly, the J.U.I.-F was a part and parcel of the past two [...]
Editorial: Teachers’ Decision: An Extraordinary Setback For Elections
Two weeks before the upcoming general elections, the Government Teachers’ Association (G.T.A.), the biggest union of public school teachers in Balochistan, has announced that its members will not perform election duty on May 11 due to security concerns. The G.T.A. says as many as 18,441 government school teachers in 11 Baloch-dominated districts of Balochistan will [...]
Editorial: Campaigns Silenced
The election campaigns in Balochistan have been deeply silenced after at least four organized attacks on different political parties in various cities. On April 16, the Baloch Liberation Army (B.L.A.) attacked the convey of Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, the Balochistan president of the Pakistan Muslim League (P.M.L-Nawaz), which led to the killing of his young son, [...]