Bureau Report
QUETTA: PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz arrived on Thursday at the site in Quetta where members of the Shia Hazara community have been protesting the killing of 11 coal miners in Balochistan’s Mach area.
Taking to the stage, Bilawal and Maryam, who are currently part of an 11-party anti-government alliance, addressed the protesters along with other political leaders including Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Bilawal recalled that the Hazara community had protested with as many as 100 coffins after attacks during the PPP government’s tenure. “Then too, you had put forward your demands to us. We had even dismissed the [provincial] government,” he told the protesters, regretting that attacks against the community had continued through the terms of subsequent governments.
In January 2013, amidst countrywide protests following three consecutive bombings targeting the Hazaras in Quetta, the then PPP government had dismissed the Balochistan government and imposed governor’s rule in the province. The announcement by then-prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was welcomed by thousands of Hazara Shias who had been staging a sit-in in the freezing cold in Quetta along with the bodies of dozens of people killed in the attacks.
The Hazaras have been staging a similar sit-in outside Quetta for four days to protest the miners’ killing. One of their demands is the ouster of the provincial government, which is trying to resolve the matter through talks. In his speech, Bilawal said whenever he visited the Balochistan capital, it was not to celebrate or for political reasons, but to condole with Hazaras who were frequently targeted in terrorism incidents. “Pakistan is a country where even our martyred and the dead have to protest,” he said, adding that although basic utilities like gas and electricity had become expensive in the country, “the people’s blood is cheap”.
“The blood of our labourers is cheap, and that of political workers, police officers, lawyers, residents and the Hazara community.” The PPP chairperson said nearly 2,000 Hazaras had been killed since 1998, but “not one of them” had gotten justice, while the Hazaras’ demand of “let us live” was resounding throughout the country. “I too belong to a family of martyrs. We too have not been able to get our martyrs justice till date, like you. I promise you, the way we struggle day and night to get justice for our martyrs, we will struggle for our poor people’s right to live till the day we do politics.
“What kind of justice is this where you are killed by [identification through] ID cards while doing labour or going to school? What kind of justice is this where the families of the martyred have to repeatedly protest along with their coffins?” Bilawal asked. He said a state could not call itself a state until it ensured the security of life for its oppressed segments.
Bilawal said the Hazaras also faced discrimination when it came to government jobs and even educational institutions. “But we are not focusing on those issues [right now], we only demand justice and the right to live,” he emphasised.
“On behalf of the PPP, we demand from the state that you had promised to implement the National Action Plan, and promised the children of APS (Army Public School Peshawar) to eliminate terrorism from Pakistan, and if today not only can terrorists launch attacks, but extremists can spread extremism, raise slogans of ‘Kafir! Kafir!’ and spread hate, then the NAP has failed and terrorists backs’ have not been broken.” He said they did not want to hear from the state that foreign elements may have sponsored terror incidents in Pakistan. “But it is a failure of our state if a foreign conspiracy succeeds in killing our innocent citizens,” he added.
“Until you catch the killer of a common man and assure citizens that you will protect their lives, then not only will those citizens’ lives remain under constant threat but the country and the federation will also be at risk.”
‘Is your ego bigger than their pain?’: Maryam to PM
While condoling with the grieving protesters, Maryam said she was at a loss for words because while the entire nation shared the pain of the Hazaras, no one could truly feel the tragedy that had befallen the miners’ families.
