Government Blaming Orchard Owners for Its Failure to Maintain Peace: Abdul Ghafoor Haideri

QUETTA: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Central Secretary-General and Member of the National Assembly Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri has accused the government of shifting the blame for its failure to maintain law and order onto orchard owners in Balochistan.

Haideri said the government was now attempting to conceal its own shortcomings by labeling orchard owners as alleged facilitators of terrorists, describing the approach as unacceptable.

“Maintaining peace is the responsibility of the state. It is difficult to understand the logic of treating orchard owners as facilitators of terrorists or suggesting that orchards should be eliminated,” Haideri said.

He questioned how an orchard owner could be held responsible if security forces came under attack from an orchard, particularly when the owner was unable to protect himself and his property.

He said simply labeling people as facilitators would not resolve Balochistan’s security problems. Instead, he alleged that such measures appeared aimed at forcibly displacing local residents from their ancestral properties.

Haideri said many local families had lived on their lands for centuries and warned that declaring local residents facilitators under such a pretext could become an attempt to take away their ancestral property.

He stressed that under the Constitution, protecting the life, property and dignity of every citizen was the state’s foremost responsibility. He said combating terrorism was the responsibility of security and intelligence institutions and innocent citizens should not be harassed.

“Putting the burden of security failures on ordinary people amounts to the state evading its own responsibility,” he said, warning that such measures could further widen the gap between citizens and state institutions and increase mistrust.

Haideri argued that local landlords and orchard owners did not voluntarily provide shelter to anti-state groups. If armed groups forcibly entered private property, he questioned how the owner could be held responsible for their presence.

The JUI leader claimed that due to government incompetence, parts of Balochistan had effectively become no-go areas. He said deprivation and unresolved grievances had pushed the province toward insecurity, a sense of marginalization and instability, while government claims of development and assurances had lost credibility.

He alleged that the writ of the government was not visible across much of the province and that the lives, property and dignity of citizens were at risk.

Haideri further criticized what he described as irresponsible decisions concerning the country’s affairs, saying they had caused irreparable damage. Despite billions of rupees being spent in the name of maintaining law and order, he said the continuing insecurity raised serious questions about the government’s performance.

He concluded that the government could not hide its failures through workshops, statements and tall claims, and urged authorities to take practical measures to restore peace while protecting the rights and property of ordinary citizens.