Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
The grievances of the Baloch people are not without some genuine reasons.
The renowned columnist and bureaucrat Orya Maqbool Jan spent several years in Balochistan, serving at highly important administrative posts. In a scholarly lecture arranged by World Times delivered at the Superior University on Balochistan issue and he discussed the current turbulent situation prevailing in the province, along with its historical background. The important points of his lecture have been summarised below.
The English attempted to occupy this land by force but were met with severe resistance and about 300 of them were killed in Sibi. For the time being they withdrew and started making contacts with the Mari, Bugti and other tribal leaders in order to increase their influence in the region.
Like colonial exploiters we believe that it is our birth right to gain maximum benefit from their natural resources, while keeping them in abject poverty and backwardness.
By repeated military actions we may be able to occupy that land for a while, but we will not be able to win the hearts of its people.
Some insurgency or resentment started shortly afterwards and the sense of deprivation and isolation among the Baloch people continued to increase. The creation of One Unit in the country added to their problems because for the solution of their problems these simple, poor and ignorant people had to travel to Lahore where they could not know what to do and whom to meet.
It is time to heal their wounds, alleviate their sufferings, reunite their thousands of missing persons with their families, address their genuine grievances and remove the root causes of their feelings of hatred and disgust.
The grievances of the Baloch people are not without some genuine reasons. The fact is that they have always been deliberately ignored and our attitude towards them has been that of colonial masters. There was a time when we considered the Bengalis to be inferior human beings, worthy of contempt and humiliation.
Today, our approach towards the Balochis is also the same. Like colonial exploiters we believe that it is our birth right to gain maximum benefit from their natural resources, while keeping them in abject poverty and backwardness. The Sui Gas discovered in the early 50s could not reach Quetta till the early 80s.
The first factory for making fertilizers from gas was set up not in Balochistan but in Meerpur Mathelo in Sindh. Similarly, all the marble and coal got from Balochistan is brought to the factories working in other provinces. In 1992, the total development budget for the province was only 1.23 billion rupees.
We have created the myth that the Baloch tribal chiefs are against the building of roads and schools. But the fact is that Nawab Akbar Bugti and Nawab Mari themselves encouraged the opening of schools in Sui and Kohlu. They never resisted the building of roads and reopening of the blocked roads. While all sorts of false and fictitious tales are told about Baloch tribal chiefs, nothing is said about the obnoxious activities of Punjabi Chaudhris and Waderas.
Musharraf was attacked twice in Rawalpindi, but on neither of these occasions, was the whole city surrounded by the security forces. However, when he was attacked in Kohlu, the whole area was cordoned off to find out the attackers. Such injustices and double standards are bound to infuriate the Balochis. There was a time when only three levies officials were sufficient to guard the whole Sui Gas Plant but now, even thousands of security forces are unable to do so because they no longer enjoy the trust and co-operation of the local people.
When Musharraf launched military operation in the province he claimed that he wanted to establish the writ of the government. But he forgot that instead of establishing the writ of the government, good rulers always try to establish the writ of justice.
The Balochis have some genuine reasons for opposing the Gwadar Port project. Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and Karachi Development Authority (KDA) are working under provincial governments but Gwadar Development Authority is working under the Federal government, because it is argued that the Balochis are unskilled and illiterate and are unable to do anything. If they do not have the technical skill, they should be trained, instead of being sidelined and replaced by other people, because no one is a born expert of anything.
Moreover, all the important politicians of the country and members of the civil and military bureaucracy have bought plots in Gwadar at a much cheaper rate. In fact, the whole property mafia of the country has reached Gwadar urging the people to buy the lands. Thus, the impression is that all the people should go there and take part in the looting and plundering. When their lands are being grabbed and sold out at nominal rates and when their resources are being ruthlessly exploited, how can they remain silent?
When the Chief Minister of Punjab goes to Quetta and announces an additional shipment of wheat to that province, he is given much publicity for this act of charity. But the Chief Minister of Balochistan is never invited to come to Lahore and announce an additional supply of gas to Punjab, because we believe in Punjab that only we have the right to increase or decrease the supply of gas for us from Balochistan.
Instead of the colonial and bureaucratic approach, we need a more rational and realistic approach to tackle the problems confronting Balochistan and its people. By repeated military actions we may be able to occupy that land for a while, but we will not be able to win the hearts of its people.
It is time to heal their wounds, alleviate their sufferings, reunite their thousands of missing persons with their families, address their genuine grievances and remove the root causes of their feelings of hatred and disgust.
Besides this, it is the need of the hour that instead of working for the interests of others and fighting their wars on our own soil, our rulers should work independently in the best interest of our country and people. This is exactly what the 27 countries of South America at last did.
After several years of bloody conflicts and civil wars which they fought for American interests in their own countries, they told the Americans that they would no longer become their battlegrounds. The result is that with peace restored, their economies are growing at a much faster rate now. People belonging to 27 nationalities live in Iran and yet, it is a much more peaceful country than ours, only because its rulers give more importance to their country’s interests than to the American interests.
