EDITORIAL: The port city of Gwadar remains tense following crackdown on the Haq Do Tehreek (HDT — give rights movement) led by Jamaat-e-Islami’s Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, who was arrested in January.
Following the lifting of Section 144 last week, hundreds of women, many clad in burqas, staged demonstrations led by a HDT leader Husain Wadela and Senator Mushtaq Ahmed to press for the release of the Maulana.
The movement started in September 2021, organised several sit-ins and protest demonstrations, gaining massive public support for raising demands that affect the lives of local people, such as an end to illegal fishing — by Sindh’s trawlers and foreign trawlers — removal of unnecessary security check posts, supply of clean drinking water, and opening of trade route to Iran.
All these issues are justified except, perhaps, the last one related as it is to wider security/diplomatic matters.
Last December when the situation became unmanageable, Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Longove and Adviser to the CM Lala Rasheed arrived in Gwadar and met with the HDT’s second tier leaders.
Officials later said that considerable progress had been made to address the protesters’ demands, claiming that eight trawlers were confiscated by the Fisheries Department while the police, and that the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency and Coast Guards would carry out joint patrolling to curb illegal trawling.
The fee for boat registration and licensing was also reduced. It is not known if any headway was made on the other demands. Maulana Rehman, however, contended that the government had failed to keep its promises, and that his movement was left with no option but to restart protests. Things took an ugly turn when the police tried to break up a protest rally.
In the ensuing violence a constable died from a gunshot. The Maulana along with three other persons was booked for the murder, and apprehended when he appeared before a court to seek interim bail.
That prompted the Balochistan Bar Council to issue a statement condemning the arrest without waiting for the court ruling; it also gave a different version of the unfortunate incident. The HDT leader may or may not be responsible for the tragic loss of life. That needed to be determined via due process. He has since been booked in 17 more cases.
It is worth noting that when the trouble was at its peak the Quetta Corps Commander, Lt-Gen Asif Ghafoor, visited Gwadar and after meetings with political leaders and administrative officials he had acknowledged that the HDT’s demands were genuine, adding though that “this was not the way” to make demands.
The people, of course, have the right to express their disaffection through protests, which tend to become ‘this way’ when instead of facilitating that right force is employed to suppress them.
Reckless resort to force by the State has consequences as seen not only in Gwadar, the centrepiece of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, but all over that restive province.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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