Bso Plagued With Defection And Infighting.Quetta: The Largest Wing Of The Baloch Students Organisation (Bso Azad) Is Plagued With The Worst Defection ...

BSO plagued with defection and infighting

BSO plagued with defection and infighting

* Around 60 students quit the BSO-Azad faction last week

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: The largest wing of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad) is plagued with the worst defection and infighting since its creation in February 2006 over activists’ dissatisfaction with their chairman, Bashir Zeb Baloch.

The BSO-Azad, a sympathiser of the armed struggle in Balochistan and a proponent of an independent Balochistan, has been abandoned by 60 of its workers in the current week alone.

The activists complain that they have been disappointed by the 'undemocratic' and 'domineering' role of their chairman, who refuses to quit his office in order to pave the way for the budding leadership to assume the charge of the organisation. As a result, around 25 students quit the Azad faction of the BSO and joined the Pajar faction.

The next day, 30 other supporters of the BSO-Azad announced their resignations and joined the Mohiuddin faction of BSO, which is loyal to the Balochistan National Party-Mengal. Currently, there are three factions of the BSO – Azad, Pajar and Mohiuddin. While the last two are the student wings of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and the National Party respectively, the Azad faction, as its name indicates, does not associate itself with any political organisation.

The annoyed activists of the BSO-Azad complain their chairman has been hiding underground throughout the year. Now, they want to replace him with a more committed young leader, Sangat Sana Baloch. But the chairman refuses to give up his office despite the demand of the majority of the party workers. "The BSO is a democratic student party. We want the leadership to be present among its workers. Elections should be held regularly to choose a new chairman. We have been badly disappointed by the undemocratic and rigid role of the chairman and decided to quit the organisation and join BSO-Mohiuddin which is more democratic in its orientation," said Imran Baloch, a BSO defector. When approached by Daily Times, Bashir Zeb rejected the allegations against him, saying that the BSO had always come under the influence of 'invisible forces' which tried to exploit some 'immature workers' to cause the break-up of the organisation. "I still enjoy the support of the majority of the ideologically committed comrades," he remarked, "Those who have decided to quit have proven how ‘immature their political vision is.