The
Balochistan Issue
By Rashed Rahman
11 August, 2004
Daily Times,Pakistan
Events
in Balochistan in the last week threatened to spin out of control. Hardly
had the news of the attack on off-duty soldiers in Khuzdar on August
1 been absorbed when an ambush of the convoy of Chief Minister Jam Yousaf,
was reported, again in the Khuzdar area. In the first incident, five
soldiers and a civilian were killed. In the latter, also blamed later
on a misunderstanding, a police bodyguard of the chief minister and
one of the attackers, dressed in the uniform of the Levies, the provincial
militia, were killed.
This produced a
carrot and stick response by the government. On the one hand, Akhtar
Mengal, an ex-chief minister, and others were charged in the first Khuzdar
incident. Nawab Khair Buksh Marri and his sons were named as suspects
in the case of a landmine explosion near Kohlu in the Marri area in
April this year. On the other hand, placatory noises were heard (amidst
some discordant threatening ones) from government spokespersons. A significant
meeting between the prime minister, finance minister, information minister
and President General Pervez Musharraf yielded little by way of what
exactly was discussed, except that the government planned talks with
some nationalist Baloch leaders.
The prime minister
was to go to Sann to talk to Sindhi nationalist leader and late GM Syed's
son Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, but could not make it. Secretary General
of the National Security Council Tariq Aziz was despatched to see Nawab
Akbar Bugti. The government has hopes Jalal Shah may be able to intercede
and help defuse the looming confrontation between the troops deployed
in Balochistan in recent days ("protective deployment" according
to the ISPR chief, Major General Shaukat Sultan, "unannounced army
operation" according to the Baloch nationalists) and the nationalist
forces in the province. As to the Aziz-Bugti meeting, according to Akbar
Bugti, the on-going mega-projects in Balochistan were discussed, including
Gwadar. The 6-8 military cantonments the army wants to set up all over
the interior of the province did not come under discussion.
The government accuses
the nationalist Sardars of being opposed to the mega-projects in particular,
and to development in the province in general, for fear their traditional
hold on their areas may be weakened by modernisation. The fact, however,
is that enlightened nationalists, including the three main nationalist
Sardars, Marri, Bugti and Mengal, oppose not development, but deprivation
of Baloch people's rights in the name of development and modernisation.
Do the nationalists
have a case? Let us briefly examine the record. Gas was discovered in
Sui around 1952. Since then, Pakistan has benefited enormously from
this cheap source of energy. Balochistan, however, neither had gas for
its own use nor was paid royalties which were its due till the mid-1980s,
when General Ziaul Haq was trying to mollify the Baloch nationalists
since he had his hands full with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's People's Party.
Even today, the only gas pipeline in Balochistan runs up till Quetta,
with a proposed pipeline to Khuzdar still to become a reality. The lack
of alternative fuel has denuded whatever little forest cover the arid
province had. Only under international environmentalists' pressure has
the federal government lately conceded the need for gas supply to Ziarat
to save the unique Juniper forest from extinction. The royalties being
paid to Balochistan for its gas are lower than those being paid for
later discoveries in Sindh and Punjab. This is cause of much
heartburn for the Baloch.
Given this background,
it is easy to understand nationalist misgivings about further exploration
for gas and oil in the province. The tribes have been resisting exploration
activities without a fair share in gas and oil development. Whatever
little exploration activity has occurred in the past has been either
under the protection of military deployments or under agreements with
local chieftains. In the case of the latter, the exploration companies
have been accused by local people of bad faith and reneging on promises
of providing jobs, schools, healthcare and other social infrastructure
to the local populace.
The Saindak copper
and precious minerals project was supposed to train and employ local
youth. Instead, after many false starts and remaining in limbo for almost
a decade because of the unwillingness of the federal authorities to
provide a paltry Rs 1.5 billion as working capital, the project has
been revived under Chinese management. The latter, who put up the project
in the first place, never forgot its export and earnings potential,
and have a contract to run it in return for 50 percent of the profits.
Out of the remaining, 48 per cent goes to the federal government and
Balochistan receives 2 per cent. There are no local youths trained or
employed in the project as far as we know, another broken promise in
a long line of similar disappointments.
Gwadar port's strategic
and economic value has never been in doubt. In fact it was the Baloch
nationalists, at that time in coalition with Nawaz Sharif, who invited
the former prime minister to announce the initiation of the project
at a rally in Gwadar. But subsequent developments have left these very
nationalists bitter. The master plan for the Gwadar port, city and military
base adjoining it have never been seen by either the chief minister
of the province or been laid for discussion in the Balochistan Assembly.
Along with other development work on the ground, the new Gwadar city
has turned out to be a major land grab for investors from outside the
province, as advertisements in the national and even international media
show. Initially, the federal authorities envisaged 2.5 million people
being inducted from outside the province. This has now climbed to 5
million. Given that the population of the entire province is only 6-7
million, the people of Balochistan are protesting that
this massive influx will swamp them, deprive them of a share in the
opportunities created by these mega-projects, and wipe out their identity
from the face of the earth.
The clash in Balochistan
is between aggressive modernisation (backed by military force) and the
Baloch people's demands for their rights. Force has not yielded good
results in the past. It is unlikely to do so in future. The government
therefore would be better advised to seek a consensual mode of implementation
of the mega-projects the poor people of Balochistan desperately need
to overcome decades of neglect and deprivation of rights by bringing
the nationalists on board through a fair distribution of the benefits
of development and modernisation.
The writer is currently
a freelance contributor who has held editorial positions in various
Pakistani newspapers