PTI's rally in Balochistan: preparations well underway

After putting up a successful show of street power in Lahore and Karachi, preparations are in full swing for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's grand rally in Balochistan on March 23. During his public rally in Karachi on December 25, Khan had announced that the tsunami will now turn towards Quetta but analysts were of the view that he [Imran] can at least mediate in, if not entirety to resolve the Balochistan puzzle.
Party activists have been directed to start preparations under the supervision of senior party leaderships both in Islamabad as well Balochistan to make the public gathering exemplary. When asked about the success of Quetta rally, Dr Shireen M Mazari, senior PTI leader was optimistic that it will gain more response as we have time of two and a half months for net practice.
Critics who consider Balochistan a tough pitch, she added, will have to bear another major upset from the visitors' gallery. It was also learnt that some old loyalists of General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) like former ministers Zubaida Jalal, Shoaib Nosherwani, Balochistan Assembly's current Deputy Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootani and Rubina Irfan may join the PTI on the occasion of Imran's rally.
They said that some PML-N stalwarts may also move towards PTI as they were not satisfied with the performance of their top leadership regarding party workers despite wielding power in the major province of Pakistan. Under prevailing circumstances, they opined, there were strong indications, some PML-N heavyweights may also join the PTI.
According to analysts, Imran's Balochistan rally will be a great success if, he focused on Balochis' major demands, which included immediate halt to paramilitary forces operations, recovery of missing persons and an end to targeted killings of innocent people.
They said that even today, Balochistan presents a picture of 18th century when there was no concept of human rights at all. The resentment of Baloch people has genuine reasons because the much-hyped Balochistan package has also been failed. However, the province continues to count its missing persons and bullet-riddled bodies were being found in Balochistan everyday, which, they added, needed to be resolved on war footing.
The analysts said that the rally was also important because Imran has decided to tour the province when the province was going through a history of deception and broken promises by different governments, adding that these were the major issues confronting Balochis, which if resolved, would not only be a victory for the PTI but gain the attention of Balochis who were not happy with the rulers.
Pakistan was created on the basis of two nation theory, they observed, which was tactfully pleaded by the Quaid-i-Azam and persuaded the Baloch elders to join hands with him in creation of a new homeland [Pakistan] for the Muslims of the subcontinent.
Much was not done since independence, they pointed out, for the uplift of Baloch people even the salaries of workers in government departments were not at par with other provinces, which was a glaring example of discrimination what to talk of many others.They were of the view that Imran would have to concentrate on the deprivations of Baloch people if he wanted to win their hearts and minds and his manifesto must clearly chalk out that how he would go about for the development of a province, end sense of deprivation etc which was ignored in the past sixty five years.