Calming Baloch anger

Promises from Pakistan's government will simply not yield a change in the popular mood in Balochistan unless clearly backed by tangible action

By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News Published: 00:00 November 29, 2009
A long awaited relief package unveiled in the past week by Pakistan's federal government to work as an incentives for pacifying armed insurgents in the country's south-western Balochistan province, deserves more than just a cautious recognition.

On the face of it, the incentives haven't received instantaneous approval across the board in Pakistan. There is ample reason for scepticism surrounding such initiatives, as Balochistan for long has been at the centre of aggravating conditions.

Rich in energy resources such as gas and oil, and strategically bordered by Iran and Afghanistan, Balochistan is also Pakistan's geographically largest but indeed the poorest among its five provinces.

In the past 40 years, Balochistan has witnessed a recurring armed insurgency led by provincial nationalists who have been angry over a host of issues. These range from demands upon successive federal governments in Islamabad to pay royalty for the gas pumped out of the province, to apparently simpler matters such as demands for larger quotas in government jobs for residents of Balochistan.

However, the bigger challenge for Pakistan's unity emanating from conditions in Balochistan has essentially been that of the increased maturity of nationalism from this province.

Intellectually powerful

Modern-day equivalent of Baloch folklore backed by the use of verbally powerful material in speeches and broadcast messages, have together given an intellectually powerful sense to Balochistan's case for more rights.

However, the biggest provocation for Baloch nationalists came just over three years when Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a Baloch nationalist leader, was killed in mysterious circumstances.

Baloch nationalists still insist that Bugti was killed in a targeted attack by the Pakistan army while the military still claims that his killing took place when explosives stored in his place of hiding, blew up. The case however has provoked more than a simple disagreement on how Bugti was killed.

There are wider repercussions which are essentially about the ways in which the people of Balochistan relate to the rest of Pakistan. In the past few months, Baloch anger has been raised to the extent that the public in the province increasingly is seeking at least a redefinition of their relationship with the rest of the country.

For the moment, President Asif Ali Zardari and his co-rulers have led themselves in the right direction. By announcing a package which seeks to respond to Balochistan's litany of complaints against the rest of Pakistan, the government has essentially taken the first right step.

Some key provisions in the Balochistan package include the decision to withdraw Pakistan's military troops from the area where Bugti was killed and their replacement by mostly local paramilitary soldiers. This is more than a simple symbolic gesture as it involves the final recognition that deployment of the army in the area to begin with, was a mistake.

Similarly, the decision to appoint a majority of the members of the presiding authority for Gwadar —the main port in Balochistan, from the province itself, is also meant to award recognition to claims from Baloch nationalists that they must be given more economic rights.

While such initiatives are welcome, the ultimate proof of the pudding will essentially lie in its eating. Such promises from Pakistan's federal government will simply not yield a change in the popular mood in Balochistan unless clearly backed by tangible action and that too in the short term.

Intensity of anger

The intensity of the anger across Balochistan is such that further lip service will simply be counterproductive. Instead of pacifying the anger which has translated itself into open hostility and calls for secession from Pakistan, the new Balochistan initiative runs the risk of becoming totally counter productive, if mishandled.

At the same time, the new Balochistan initiative can work as a model for the rest of Pakistan in the sense that it can show the way for a much needed revision of relations between the country's centre and its provinces.

Pakistan's ruling establishment during the country's 62-year history has repeatedly tried taking charge of the provinces by concentrating too many powers in the centre or the federal government. On the face of it, this approach has simply failed to bring a semblance of calm to the country's politics. In the interest of turning a new page, it is about time that the rulers in Islamabad forego their past and lay the course for a qualitatively new future.


- Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.

http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/calming-baloch-anger-1.533455