UN & Balochistan

THIS is apropos of the news item `UN team spends busy day in Quetta` (Sept 16).

The controversial visit of UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to evaluate the issue of missing persons` has brought Balochistaninto the spotlight as one of the most favourite playfields for hatching international conspiracies.

Earlier this year the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Dana Rohrabacher, held an unusual US congressional hearing on human rights abuses inBalochistan, blaming Pakistan`s intelligence agencies for enforced disappearances of Baloch people.

Responding sharply, Pakistan`s National Assembly condemned such a visit as a `threat to the country`s sovereignty` With an independent judiciary, an enlightened civil society, coupled with a vigorous media, the grievances of the Blaoch, be it political or economic, can be befittingly addressed to the entire satisfaction.

Pakistan is confronted with challenges of enormous magnitude that require unity, harmony andmutual respect among all segments of society and state institutions.

As cases of enforced disappearances are in the Supreme Court and the parliamentary committee is also looking into the matter, it is the duty of a mature and responsible media to avoid speculations about the episode.

Let us defeat all conspiracies hatched by our enemies and provide fair ground to the Supreme Court to decide the cases ofenforced disappearances.


INAM ULLAH KHAN Rawalpindi