The Balochistan ‘package’
By Sanaullah Baloch : The Balochistan ‘package’
The Baloch people had hoped that over the past few years the central government would have come to the realisation that the conflict in their province was not merely about financial packages.
In fact, the struggle in the resource-rich but poverty-stricken region is political: it aims at ending Islamabad’s exploitation, oppression and colonial control over Balochistan.
The centre’s endless desire to control the province’s natural wealth and its continued suppression of the people through ethnically-structured military and paramilitary forces are the prime reasons behind the uneasy Baloch-Islamabad relations. Since the time Pervez Musharraf took over in 1999 and after, the term ‘Balochistan package’ has been used repetitively to confuse and distract debate and attention away from the province’s genuine political, social and economic issues.
If the current regime in Islamabad is sincere, willing and authorised by the establishment to indisputably resolve the prolonged Baloch-Islamabad conflict, then they have to agree to address the crux of the matter: the rulers should come up with a more political and long-lasting solution, rather than packages. However, their silence on the aggravating situation in the province is proof of their aloofness.
In the last six decades the Baloch people have been governed like a subsidiary. Islamabad is ruling Balochistan through a system known as ‘control’. Control is a suppressive and outdated system based on a set of mechanisms used in multi-ethnic states by the dominant ethnic group to contain and keep its control over dissident ethnic minorities.
It is based on the idea that one ethnic group takes over the state and its institutions, imposes its culture on society, allocates to itself the lion’s share of resources and takes various measures like military operations, suppression, etc to prevent the non-dominant groups from organising politically for their due rights.
Control works through three interrelated mechanisms:
a) Divide and rule: creating internal social and tribal rifts and divisions among the non-dominant groups.
b) Economic dependence: controlling and exploiting resources and making the non-dominant group permanently dependent for its social, cultural and basic livelihood on the central government (dominant group).
c) Co-optation: involving the non-dominant elite like greedy tribal chiefs, feudals, drug tycoons and corrupt politicians through partial dispensation of benefits and favours.
First, the central government has to end its colonial control over the destiny of the people of Balochistan. The province’s politics, economy and security set-up must be Balochistan-oriented rather than imposed from elsewhere. Islamabad has to ensure an end to political suppression, ‘disappearances’ and the intimidation of the Baloch.
Perhaps it is too early to say so, but it appears that the PPP’s package may not be different from the packages announced by previous regimes. I am also uncertain whether the package is going to be attractive enough to end growing Baloch anger. The package will aggravate Baloch dissatisfaction if it does not address the root causes of the tension and genuine demands of the Baloch people. The central government needs to be very fair when dealing with Baloch demands.
The package will only be appreciated as a confidence-building measure if it includes stopping the daylight robbery of Balochistan’s natural wealth, and includes the termination of all MoUs signed by the Musharraf regime with regard to Saindak and Reko Dik copper-gold projects and an end to the half-century old exploitation of Pakistan Petroleum Limited, known as Balochistan’s East India Company.
The package should include provincial control over the civil armed forces (CAF) and replacement of more than 50,000 aliens of the CAF by unemployed local youth and should include the termination of countless military and paramilitary facilities and their transformation into education and health centres.
Also, the intelligence agencies’ meddling in Balochistan’s social, tribal and political affairs, including killings and disappearances of Baloch nationalists, should stop. There must be reliable assurances to the victims of the military operation that Musharraf and his close associates involved in gross human rights violations will be tried for their official and unofficial crimes, including the killing of veteran Baloch leaders.
Last but not least the package must offer a clear political roadmap to end Islamabad’s colonial control over the province and accept the Baloch people’s demand for the right to self-rule. Any bureaucratically drafted announcement would be useless to appease the politically conscious Baloch. Rather than being promise-oriented, the Balochistan package should be action-based.
The Baloch people have witnessed enough pain, promises and packages. Their demands are crystal clear: a peaceful Balochistan, ruled, governed and controlled by them. The Baloch have given 60 years to Islamabad to change the fate of the region but have, instead, been showered with bombs and bullets. Political, economic, social, educational and cultural values have been all but destroyed in the province. An end to the Balochistan conflict is not a simple task. The mistrust between the Baloch and the establishment has intensified after repeated killings and intimidation.
Fair and unbiased policies towards Balochistan will gradually pave the way for sustainable peace and security in the region. This can only be done by allowing experienced and neutral international mediators and experts to devise a strategy for conflict-resolution and management. The establishment must come forward and wholeheartedly demonstrate its willingness to grant self-rule and political autonomy to the province.
The writer is a former senator.
balochbnp@gmail.com
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I have only one qts name one province where awwam are incharge of thier affairs. Sindh saw for decades, the governer who were not even sindhi or muhajir, post 1973 lassani fasadat sindh guaranteed that if gov is urdu speaking then CM will be sindhi and so forth and so on. Baluch might be dominant ethnic group but they are not 90% of Baluchistan, there are significant number of pushtoon and then other ethnicity. This baloch insistence to run their affair has to change 1st. Its well and good for baluchistan residents to run the affairs on provincial level but will then they agree to not protect and fight for thier sardars when they commit crimes? and that their allegiance will be to state instead of sardars?
I honestly dont have the time to filter out the substance in the article from the pile of rhetoric. Exploitation / Colonization / Resources / Rights laudable emotive words but uttered by Sanauula Baluch turned into pile of rubbish.
Is this the same Sanaullah Baloch who was involved in some road development funds scandle!
Does anyone recall the hew and cry at the MQM’s objection to housing the IDPs in Karachi. How do we reconcile that with this
Balochistan as part of Pakistan “Sar Ankhoon pur” but as an autonomous entity based on ethnic cleansing will not be acceptable under even international law talk less of the constitution of Pakistan.
@taukeer
Funny thing is even if u start talk of seperation then what Baluchistan? Afghanistan has some claim, Pak an’t leaving whole makran and gawadar, Pushtoon will go toward NWFP read Pakistan, rest of baluchistan will be swallowed by iran and afghan and pak. These guys think things bad now wait till they get iran or afghan on top lolz
I am for a negotiated settlement of genuine greviences and why are we talking about Gawadar anyway It was the federal government that payed for it. I think Baluchistan has to be divided into smaller provinces so that there are more centres of development. All the different tribes get a stake in the governance and let the maingals and murrys get a stick and spend sometime in the hills. I really regret the death of Akbar Bugti and I am sure most Bugtis are still reconcilable.
@taukeer
dun evne start the new provinces, then it should happen all over pak and I have np with that. I seriously dun understand the problem with nationalists. Saloon ki taan shrow aur khatam independence par hotee hai
So Gawadar gonna be under Provincial CM? Wtf 1st of all it should be federally held and even if u want to goive it to province, it should not be under CM. All ports should be under federally administered Port Authority. This is disaster.
http://www.express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100778123&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20091123
The News: Baloch nationalists reject package
Exiled Baloch leaders on Tuesday rejected the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package on the grounds that it doesn’t go far enough to meet their main problems.
Hyrbyair Marri, the London-based leader of the powerful Marri tribe, remains staunchly opposed to any compromise with the government. He called Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package a “mockery and a cruel joke” with the people of Balochistan and said it falls short of Baloch expectations and was only an exercise in buying more time.
He told The News: “This package is misleading. It’s another trap set for us to convince us that the federation pains for us and wants the solution of our miseries.
Marri said President Zardari and his government may have good sentiments but they were powerless and the real powers rest with the military establishment. “If Zardari is so powerful and omnipotent then why is he expecting the UNO to find killers of his wife Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto? Why doesn’t he have faith in the courts and institutions of his own country?
Mir Suleman Dawood Khan, the current Khan of Kalat, said the government failed to take all stakeholders on board and didn’t consult those it didn’t like.
“Baloch nationalist parties were not consulted and only allies of the current government were informed about it a few days ago.”
Noordin Mangal, who regularly speaks at the UN forum, said the package doesn’t address the real problems of the Baloch people.”
Mumtaz Alvi adds: Three leading Balochistan tribes – Marris, Mengals and Bugtis ñ on Tuesday billed the Balochistan package as a political gimmick and charged that it was like rubbing salt into the wounds of the Baloch people.
When contacted by telephone for comments, late Akbar Bugti’s son and President of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Talal Bugti charged that the package was prepared by the invisible forces and not by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s team or a parliamentary committee.
“The prime minister in his address to the parliament’s joint session said the FC would remain in Balochistan, which means, no change in the status-quo. If they are not serious, which I believe, we have the option to knock at the doors of the United Nations,” Talal warned.
Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) Vice-President Sajid Tareen, while talking to The News from Quetta, noted what had been announced in the package had never been the demand of Balochistan’s people.
“Our stand remains unchanged that the federating units must be treated as per the 1940 Pakistan Resolution,” he said.
Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri was not available for comments.
“We don’t believe in dialogue anymore, as it has been non-productive. We are not politically active as several other parties are,” said a source close to the veteran Baloch leader, who is chieftain of the Marri tribe.
Muhammad Anis adds: The package could not satisfy the people of Balochistan, as it had nothing significant for them, Senator Dr Abdul Malik of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) said while talking to media persons after the announcement of the package.
Senator Hasil Bazinjo said the package carries most of the old things and there is nothing new in it. “The Baloch people want practical steps, not announcements,” he added.
Dawn: FC given control of Kohlu cantonment
QUETTA: The interior ministry has issued an order handing over the Kohlu military cantonment in Balochistan to the Frontier Corps.
Official sources said on Tuesday night that the decision to give control of the newly established cantonment to the FC had been taken under the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package announced in a joint session of two houses of parliament last month.
It may be mentioned that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has also announced that no new cantonment will be set up in Balochistan.
Former president Pervez Musharraf had started work on three new military cantonments, in Sui, Kohlu and Gwadar.
All nationalist parties in the province have opposed the setting up of new cantonments in Balochistan and demanded that work on setting up the cantonments in the province be stopped.
The Balochistan assembly had adopted a resolution demanding that the plan to set up new cantonments should be scrapped. But the previous government refused to accept the demand.
Chief Minister Nawab Raisani and his coalition partners have also called for abandoning the plan.
After holding meetings with leaders of the provincial government, the president and the prime minister had announced that no new military cantonment would be set up in the province and the new cantonments would be handed over to the FC after withdrawal of army personnel.