A genuine democracy and good governance could provide the right basis for minimizing sense of deprivation among the people of Balochistan and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace in the province. Education which is imperative for the development of any society has been kept ignored and hence it has been proved as a major stumbling block in the way of progress. Establishing better interaction between the Baloch population and rest of the people of Pakistan could be instrumental in redressing the misunderstandings and to nurture peace and harmony. These were the notions expressed by the members of visiting delegation of Balochistan Youth Forum (BYF) during the dialogue ¿Elections, Democratic Rights and Governance-in Youth Perspective– held by Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) here at Defence and Strategic Studies (DSS) Department, Quaid-e-Azam University Monday.
Besides others, Walid Liaqat, Jalila Hyder, Sadam baloch, Sadaf Rasool Baloch, Javed Aziz, Sanaulalh, Ayesha Sadeeq, Jahanzaib Khan and Ahmad Faraz said that the fundamental rights of Baloch people are being denied. They said that freedom of speech is a basic fundamental right and without its provision, democracy is a farce. The Baloch youth representatives lamented that the issues and problems of the people of the province are being ignored persistently and media also overlook these issues as a routine.
The students said that Baloch people do not believe in violence but their image is being distorted deliberately. They underpinned the need of genuine democracy as an urgent step to redress the issues being confronted by Baloch people. Earlier, Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director CRSS welcomed the members of BYF and said that this effort is aiming to give the Baloch youth an opportunity to speak out about their grievance. He said that such initiatives would ultimately pave the ways to understand and resolve various issues.
While concluding the proceedings, Sardar Wazir Ahmad Jogazi, former speaker of Balochistan Assembly, said that genuine democracy has never been allowed to flourish in Balochistan. He said that the present quagmire has been resulted by this particular non democratic mindset. He said that Balochistan is blessed with tremendous wealth as far as its natural resources are concerned but without imparting education to our people, we cannot get benefitted from it. He said that besides raising voice for our rights, we need to be self accountable as well. Rasheed Khalid, chairperson DSS, QAU, Nabila Jahfar and others expressed their views on the occasion and highlighted various issues regarding democracy, governance and democratic rights of the people.