Long-simmering tension in Balochistan is once again boiling over. On Sunday, another strike was observed across the province as Baloch nationalists continue to protest the murder of three of their leaders in Turbat earlier this month.
Meanwhile, a low-intensity insurgency rages on with security forces, gas pipelines and pro-government tribesmen coming under repeated attack by separatist guerrillas. On Saturday, a Frontier Corps vehicle was destroyed and two tribesmen blown up by landmine blasts in the Dera Bugti area, killing two and wounding several others.
In an op-ed for Dawn, Anwar Syed describes the Balochistan insurrection as ‘the gravest of the crises confronting the country.’ He says the problem poses a threat to the very survival of Pakistan and urges the government to take immediate action.
In your view, what measures need to be adopted by the Pakistani government to quell the ongoing unrest in the province and win back the support of the disaffected Baloch? What steps can be taken immediately and what should be planned long-term?
Simple , ignore the wishes of the balouch zamendaars and the pak govt must insist on building schools,colleges and hospital
It is disheartening to see comments like ‘Let these Balochs go if they want so that we can concentrate on Islam and the pure nation of Pakistan!’, in one of the posts on this topic.
When will we realize that we have been saying the same things to Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas, Bengalis, Sufis, and others for over 50 years.
The Hindus, Sikhs, Bengalis have left. The Ahmadiyyas went underground, the Sufis are slowly going underground or disappearing.
Religion (any religion) is only one component of a society, it has never successfully existed as the core.
It is high time to recognize this truth even if it is perceived as against teachings gleaned.
Baloch problems has many reasons including its tribal culture, negligence from Lahore, Karachi centered elite, effect of Afghanisation problems etc etc
All these issue need to be handled and with care.
Society is inherently messy and calls for purity will delay any cleaning up of the real problems.
It is interesting to see the finger pointing towards India on this forum. Pakistan should grow out of its India fixation.
There are real internal threats in Pakistan and I see some opinions saying India is still the real threat. It is important to recognize real threats and also the fact that the 3 wars that were fought were not started by India. This is by no means implying that Indians are saints. Beyond terrorist attacks on Mumbai and such incidents, Indian public is not fixated on Pakistan anymore. Economy, growth etc. are the issues at the forefront and that is how it should be.
If there is a real Indian hand in Baloch issue, I am sure some credible evidence would come out. I don’t think Indians are so smart to support such issues without leaving a trace.
Dear Yousaf,
By giving a man a fish, you can satisfy his hunger for a day. By teaching him who to fish, you can satisfy his hunger for a life time.
You may have to start with aid in to few people or in some area of the most underdeveloped part of Pakistan, but that is not the solution friend. Create infrastructure and creative assets, so that the problem is solved in a long run.
Just job and busy mind is not enough friend, please ensure equality and justice to every Pakistani including a Baloch.
If there is an India hand, what took so long for Pakistan to expose them internationally? We are after Pakistan and had been exposing them for their blatant support to terrorist not only in India but to the entire world. You can see who the world had changed.
Support to terrorism of any form is against humanity. We are a secular, progressive and a vibrant democracy. We can not support terrorism of any sort. Tomorrow if Indians come to know that some government agency in propagating such heinous crime, we will vote that government out for sure.
We do not want to be in the shoes of state that supports terrorism. We want every one in the world to treat us with respect and learn from us.
Regards,
Dear SK,
Believe me, if Sindh is seeking independence, and let for argument sake believe that they get independence, then … do you think all the problem will get solved?
Did every thing go right with Bangladesh? Things had been bad there as well.
Dear friends, please believe me the strength is in Unity and not breaking up of Pakistan. Please refer to the “they and us” theory in my previous message. They and us will lead you to destruction … always for sure.
Believe me, as you people become democratic, secular and tolerant, development will follow. Development alone will solve most of your problems. The poorest of the poor Pakistani needs the attention and precedence over other Pakistani.
Economic development of Balochistan, will create a lot of opportunities for other part of Pakistan. Like it will provide a market for products of other Pakistani businesses, entrepreneurs for other part of the country can set up ancillary and auxiliary units in Balochistan etc. The newer industrial set will require talented staff. For which the business has to depend on more developed part of Pakistan.
My advice is to give up the idea of an independent Sindhdesh and work for a democratic, secular and progressive Pakistan.
What we really need to do is grow up and put our petty ethnic difference aside, and that would automatically solve almost all of the problems we as a country face right now.
The Baluchis deserve majority stake in anything birthed by their soil. That is certainly not an unfair demand. They have an equal right to education, health, proper infrastructure and every other facility we avail in the more developed parts the country, and not to mention take for granted.
The Federal Government along with the Waderas and their progeny haven’t done the Baluchi people any good since partition. We as a nation have to stop turning a blind eye towards all the corruption that surrounds us. We need to put an end to the same people entering public office to promote their private agendas over and over again.
Most of all we need a new constitution, one that has not been amended 50 billion times, one that ensures freedom, justice, accountability and equality, one that upholds the vision of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
First identify those who are working against the state. Then if their crimes can be pardoned then do that. Expose the Indian hand behind them. Increase the flow of Aid. Also do the pshyowar. Give Balocah people more Jobs, a busy mind is much easier to handle. If somebody is still against the state pick them up, expose them in court. Do a media trial. If Punjab is getting X amount do to it’s Y population, then Balcohistan should also be given Aid in same ratio.
My answer to those asking for independence for Balochistan:
. You were given this chance by the Qaid in 1947 but you including your icon the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, chose to join Pakistan of its own free will. Such choices are never given twice.
. Since 1947 hundreds of thousands of hard working non-Baloch have made your province as their home. Today, they are more non Baloch in Balochistan than the Baloch. Also, they have greater loyalty to Balochistan and Pakistan than your sardars do. What will happen to them if you get independence?
Gwadar was not a part of Balochistan in 1947. It was owned by a Sheikh from the Gulf. Pakistan acquired it for you and has invested a fortune in making it a deep sea port. It obviously cannot be given away to placate a handful of miscreants.
Sui has been developed by Pakistani money. What did the Baloch do to make it viable and inter alia, what claim do they have on it?
It is not Pakistan but the other two neighbours that are in illegal occupation of vast tracts of Balochistan. The Baloch should be demanding their land from them and not from Pakistan.
What we Pakistanis are lacking is a good education system in our country.
We should provide our YOUTH with the BEST education and the rest will fall in to place automatically.
We all love our country so let’s stop fighting about who is right or wrong and start focusing on a brighter and better future of our beloved Pakistan.
Education is the KEY!!!
Mr ashutosh.
Well you are probably well grown up man then why do you behave as innocent as butter will not melt in your mouth. Sindhi people are themselves asking for independence. They themselves are exploited. Given the chance they will opt for independence.
Balochistan is a wonderful land with wonderful people who have customs and traditions practiced for centuries. Their freedom is dear to them more than their lives, which is as respectable as it is noble.
Their demands are not much. Their demand is freedom and not independence. I reiterate, they demand freedom not independence. independence is a term coined for them by the enemies of Pakistan. Freedom is what the state HAS to provide to them at any cost. Freedom from oppression, freedom to practice their traditions and customs, freedom to practice their religion, freedom to let them live their lives the way they want thereby ensuring peace not only for them, but also for THEIR PAKISTAN. not only for this generation, but for generations to come.
This is what the federation has to realize. Freedom is to be provided to every citizen of the state, be it Baloch, Pathan, Muhajir, Punjabi, Kashimiri, Siraike, Sindhi or any other.
May Pakistan live with its integrity for all time to come! Amen
The rights of the people of Balochistan have been disregarded for the last 60 yrs and that is no secret. And all the governments both Federal and Provincial have played a major part in ignoring us. But the people who at this time are acting like our saviors and have started their own rebellions were once a part of these governments, I ask them what did they do when they were in power, when they had ministries and all the perks that came with it, what did the people of their communities get. NOTHING ! was the money spent on infrastructure and education or buying new Land Cruisers and Pajeros ? And if Balochistan ever became an independent state, you and i both know where all the money from the natural resources will be spent if the same people stay in power. After all what is the point of a revolution if you are going to end up with the same rulers?
I actually like the idea of an independent Balochistan, but are these people competent enough to govern it ? unfortunately NO !
Areh beta the challenge for us punjabis is how to unite west punjab and east punjab. the challenge for us punjabis is how to break our punjabi ‘berlin’ wall. Baluchistan beta was never a part of hind proper. so in fairness the baluchis should get their own independence. The pathans however are somehow too interrelated to us punjabis so they can remain with us if they want to. otherwise they can form their own paktoonistan. our punjabi challenge is to get back to a greater Hind. how do we do that? how can we punjabis, who are the sons of Arya get back to our own nation state.
I am not in favour of autonomy as this makes the divide deeper.
Pakistan should stop being an Islamic country and turn secular otherwise the divide will be there in the form of “we & they” where “we” keep getting narrower and “they” keeps changing. A democratic and secularism is they only way out.
Now Baluch and other province which are still underdeveloped in comparison to Punjab or Sindh certainly need more attention and respect.
To ensure that Baluch feels as much the part of Pakistan as Punjab or Singh, Pakistan should take the following steps in short, medium and long terms:
1. Free and fair elections should be held at regular intervals for both provincial and national assembly.
2. A committee of local people should be formed to investigate various aristocracies and to investigate into disappearance of various people. All those found guilty should be brought to justice.
3. For effective governance, recruit more government officials and policemen from the local people. This will provide employment and remove complain of biasness on Pakistan.
4. The militants should then be dealt with firmly but never forget that these militants are Pakistani nationals. So heavy machine guns, helicopter gun ships should not be used as for as possible. Use the local police as for as possible and try to bring them to justice. Killing them increases suspicion which may cause trouble.
5. Open school, colleges and vocational institution which give hope for a nice future for the local people.
6. Improve road and rail connectivity to all parts of Pakistan and some port. This will initially give lot of employment to the unskilled locals and improve moment of goods and people integrating Baluch to Pakistan.
7. Since this state is rich in resources, so as many large public sector undertaking should be established which ensures not only direct-employment but also encourages entrepreneurs to establish ancillaries and auxiliary units. This will generate employment in long term and kick start the economy helping Pakistan in general and Baluch in particular.
Believe me all such step will help Baluch an integral part of Pakistan and they will be no less Pakistani than any one else.
Punjab and Sindh have to contribute in the short and medium term for a large gain in the long term. The rather well-to-do brethren should lend a helping hand to not so lucky ones catches up with the rest of you.
Balochistan today being an integral part of Pakistan is a vital part of the countrys survival and we Pakistani must do our outmost to keep it as a part of our country. Even though we all know that the Baloch had no saying in agreeing to be Pakistanis they are made Pakistanis like so many others, and we must not push them away. We must bear in mind that the Baloch of today are not the same Balochs of 30 or 40 years ago hence many of the national leaders are not even from the sardar stock. We can’t fool them for ever. Some sardars are bribeable but some are not, and some regular Baloch are and many are not, we have to face the facts. To be able to govern a real muslim state we must have the hearts and minds of the people and if the Baloch after 60 years of persuation dont want to belong to Pakistan, what choice do we have? Have we not tried? Have we not waged war on them five times, and now we are facing them for the sixth time and they are blowing up our pipelines that bring us electricity like never before. We have to live in darkness just because they want this elecricity for them selves. This is not a muslim way. A muslim thinks of other more than himself. If the foreign powers wanted to divide them they had done that long time ago. If they are supported by foreign powers like Afghanitan and India, it’s not surprising. They want to separate, and will seek all means to reach that goal. These countries allegedly supporting them, are not our friends and they dont bear our interest as a muslim nation just because we are supporting the opposition of these foe countries. I want a Pakistan without inside enemies! Let these Balochs go if they want so that we can concentrate on Islam and the pure nation of Pakistan!
sovereignty doesn’t guarantees autonomy,so even if balcohistan is given independence from pakistan,there problems won’t be solved,baluch people are right in a way they have been neglected from past 60 years due to corrupt esstablishmnet,govt should do more fpr baluchis and whole of pakistan
@ Omar. Committees ,albeit strong enough has been constituted in the past days and even are being constituted in latter days but to no avail. Just thrusting few recommedation in the table will not work. Now the lid has been torn off the simmering crisis: Baluchistan crisis. Now, I hope its should be my utterly wrong assessment however it does not sound so, the point of no return has reached.
Are we asking for one thing in Kashmir (from India) and wanting something else in Balochistan…or I am totally wrong in suspecting that we are being hypocritical?
Go to every province, not only Baluchistan, you will find people unhappy with Pakistan. Go to sind people will be found asking for sind independence. Well that is there due right indeed. Sind denotes 70% of resources in pool what does it get. A hardly trivial amount. No body but no body are happy with Pakistan except Punjabi. Pakistan aka Punjab. Lets make this practical.
Thousands disappeared, resources exploited, province in poverty and ruin. In such a situation I can say enough is enough. I don’t understand why people blame balouch for getting outside support. This is nothing but ridiculous. One one side people are being merciless killed and kidnapped by agencies so what should they do. Whatever they are doing is fair enough. If more than 600000 people don’t want to live with Pakistan then why they are still being detained?
Mr. Yousuf Qureshi & Mr. Kashif Ali,
You guys — and the Brits — used to say the same things about ‘East Pakistan’ and Ireland respectively. You know what happened!
Listen, the almighty — and militarily, morally, and culturally much more superior — European Powers could not maintan their rule on other peoples’ lands. Now, how could the ‘ummat’ of Altaf & Kiyani maintain their colonial rule over the Balochs,Pashtun, Sindhis and Siraikis for ever?
As for foreign support, for more than half a century you as mercenaries used Western support trying to crush us. Now that your blackmail is exposed, we have no qualms seeking and accepting help from any quarter … TILK AL-AYYAAM-U NUDAAWILUHAA BAYN AL-NAAS !
And … you talk about ‘patriotism’! Listen: You are fighting to maintain your colonial rule over Balochistan, Pashtunistan, Sindh and Saraikia, and we are struggling to regain our God-given — and UN-Charter-given — basic human & national rights WITHIN OUR OWN HOMELANDS. Is it not ridiculous to call yourself patriots and us traitors in this confrontation !?
Malek Towghi, Ph.D.,
Liaison, Baloch Human Rights International (USA)
The thing Pakistan must do is to create more inter-ethnic marriages between the various ethnic communities in Pakistan. This will certainly do away the demand for separation. I find the presence of the accursed Hindu class system among the Pakistani Muslims disturbing and a concerted effort must be made to do away this. Even the disparity between the rich and the poor is alarming. This is the main reason why people are attracted by the taliban and the sufi movements who are running wild in the country. My personal view is let the army take over and fix the problem of the country and do away the economic and social inequalities rather than giving the country to a democratic demons who are only interested in amassing wealth in the name of religion and politics. To achieve this the army must not be waiting for American handouts.
Being a great admirer of Pakistan and its courageous and hospitable people I feel the country must take affirmative actions against all forms of inequalities and follow strict adherence to the original objective of establishing the country. I am very hopeful Pakistan will emerge stronger from this complex situation. The success of Pakistan depends on how it keeps the world devil out of its border.
Unless those few thugs and thieves who call themselves wadeeras, sardars, Khans, Chauderies are removed from the political scene & resources and ROYALTIES of Balochistan, Sind, Sarhad, Punjab,
and all resources of the country are shared by people of all provinces in a fair system like the countries who give “Khairat” to Pakistan, on and off bases (like USA, CANADA, Europian Union etc.), all people of any province have no hope for better life… or peace.
It is time to think about the needed change… DO NOT ELECT and DO NOT SEND those thugs, thieves, criminals and traitors assemblies as your representatives any more….pleeeeeeease
How they became waders, sardars, Khans, and Choudheries is another topic altogether…
Baluchistan is not the same as Bangladesh,so we must not repeat the same mistake again.we as a nation must pray for the integrity of our poor nation.we must ask for forgiveness to Allah .
Regarding Baluchistan issue, why government of Pakistan learn from Donners like Canada,USA etc; where provinces and states share resources and taxes with federal government and “have not provinces get help from haves” in shared resources of federation. Look at this system and let the SARDARS and SARDARIES GO, and establish democratic system in the province…where people could benefit from provincial resources NOT THOSE FEW SARDARS…