The Result Of The Gwadar Sit-In

The Result Of The Gwadar Sit-In
How painful it was for those people who dreamed of changing their destiny with the Gwadar sit-in where thousands of people participated in it. People of all schools of thought and ages including youth, elderly, women were involved and their basic demands regarded issues which they considered as being humiliating for them and the demands of the sit-in concerned basic human rights. Other areas of concern included illegal travelling and fishing as well as creating free trade with Iran.

Before this sit-in, Maulana had staged a sit-in in Gwadar for thirty days. That public movement became the center of attention of social media and civil societies across the country, which was the first peaceful public movement in the country's history to achieve their legitimate and fundamental rights.

Under the leadership of “Masi Zainab” (Masi Zaini), the largest women's rally in the history of Balochistan was held. Its participants continued to move forward without damaging government and non-government properties with the slogan "Maulana step forward, we are with you". The movement was for the protection of basic human rights.

On the other hand, the pressure of this movement was increasing on those responsible. During this time, negotiations were held several times with the committees formed at the official level, which did not prove fruitful. This was because the organisers believed that these committees did not have the authority to accept their demands for a sit-in. The participants were the participants were adamant that they would not negotiate with anyone except the Chief Minister. I think either it was a fixed script because the scripted aspect cannot be ignored considering the past political history. Eventually that happened.

On the twenty-first day of the movement, a high  level government delegation from Balochistan led by the Chief Minister reached Gwadar (PC Hotel). The leaders of the sit-in stuck to the narrative of "discussion in front of the people". But despite all these conditions, the leaders of the sit-in went to PC Hotel and met the high government delegation. After the talks, the head of the movement promised the participants that the talks would be successful and said that all our demands have been accepted. Which the Chief Minister himself in front of the participants will announce. The next day, all matters were settled amicably and the sit-in participants dispersed peacefully.

Some political activists and other leaders of the movement seem unhappy with the end of the sit-in. Because they believe that this movement has failed to achieve its objectives.

At that time the sit-in ended there and later local body elections were held in Balochistan and Maulana's (Haq Du Tehreek-HDT) participated in the local body elections and their results in Gwadar were very satisfactory.

Recently, Maulana had again started a sit-in on Gwadar Port Road and this sit-in continued for more than a month, Maulana refused the negotiation committee formed at the government level, then a crackdown started against the sit-in. (Haq du Tehreek-HDT) chief Maulana Hidayatur Rehman and other leaders were instituted and arrested. Maulana is currently in prison.

Consequently, people had a lot of hope from this sit-in, but what happened was what happened in the past.

The official delegation that came on the thirty-first day of the sit-in (Five Star) tried to give the resolve the matters  of the people of Gwadar with the help of money. Seeing this scene, millions of people, including me, had to go through a lot of pain and suffering because we were thinking of turning this movement into a political movement as a people's movement.

If Maulana had shown a little more flexibility, he would have won more. Whether his decision was communal or individual, it can be inferred from this decision that his popularity will be decrease significantly because his newly elected councillors may be disappointed and ultimately his The benefit will go to Maulana's political rival.

Gohram Aslam Baloch, Balochistan based writer, covering Balochistan Soci-political and its confilict. Tweets: @GohramAslamB