Balochistan is also an important transit route for NATO's military goods to Afghanistan. Unsettled, the Baloch-Islamabad conflict will have a damaging impact on Obama's troops-surge plan in Afghanistan.
Islamabad's unkind approach and over-centralised political and discriminatory policies have resulted in massive despair among the Baloch masses. Conflict in the region has resulted in killings, displacement and human rights crises well documented by reputable organisations
Predominantly, the fear of the Taliban and al Qaeda, and the rise of religious militancy has become Pakistan's hallmark. In fact, there are numerous other fault lines and factors behind Pakistan's gradual fall into fundamentalism, sectarianism, rise of ethnic conflicts and mounting political instability.
Pakistan's colonial rule and policies, ethnically structured institutions, over-centralisation, inflexible constitutional arrangements and lack of formally designed conflict resolution mechanisms are the main causes behind the endless crisis.
Repeated martial laws, supremacy of the military establishment and inferiority of the democratic system, including monotonous democratic regimes in a multi-ethnic country of 170 million people, have resulted in deep polarisation, where the citizens no longer identify themselves with the state and its policies.
The political situation is volatile and deeply fragmented - once again institutions are muscling against each other, extremism is on the rise, social standards are sharply declining, economic activities and direct foreign investment are diminishing and the energy crisis is frustrating.
Violence and intimidation are largely used as powerful instruments, both by state and non-state actors for asserting their unacceptable opinion. The political and non-violent solution to this discrepancy is conspicuous by its absence in Pakistani society.
Given the ongoing war on terrorism, Pakistan's significantly bordered regions with Afghanistan and Iran, such as Balochistan, the NWFP and FATA are currently undergoing political and geographical tensions and are shaping new security concerns in the region.
The sheer rate of acceleration of violence in Pakistan is an index of the enveloping loss of control. In the year 2003, the total fatalities in terrorism-related violence amounted to just 189, but mounted dramatically thereafter to the unprecedented minimum of 6,715 in 2008 and 11,529 in 2009.
Although the US has promised multi-billion dollar monetary aid - a typical procedure of appeasement - the Obama administration needs to facilitate and influence the Pakistani establishment to rethink its colonial system of governance and opt for more modern political arrangements.
The peaceful resolution of the prolonged Balochistan conflict, integration of FATA into the NWFP, investment in human development, activation of economic development and eradication of poverty to include political empowerment and self-rule for significant regions, i.e. Balochistan, are all very much related to the broader peace and security agenda.
There is no disagreement that undiluted democracy is the best means of conflict resolution and political stability in multi-ethnic states. But since the February 2008 elections, there has not been a major shift in Pakistan's internal and external policies. The current democratic dispensation's lack of institutional control and ambiguous policies make all these issues extra complicated.
The situation in FATA is worsening and the Taliban terror drive has grown beyond their traditional homeland. The last six decades of deliberate ignoring of the task to integrate FATA into the mainstream has gradually transformed the 27,220 sq km vicinity into ‘Talibanistan'.
The political conflict in Pakistan's southwest region continues to haunt the region. Islamabad's unkind approach and over-centralised political and discriminatory policies have resulted in massive despair among the Baloch masses. Conflict in the region has resulted in killings, displacement and human rights crises well documented by reputable organisations.
The Texas-sized, resource-rich Balochistan, with 750 km of strategically significant Arabian Sea coastline, is the largest, but least developed, of Pakistan's four provinces. Balochistan shares a sizable and strategically significant border with Afghanistan's southwest, volatile provinces and Iran's Balochistan regions.
The conflict has recently turned more critical, as Pakistan officially incorporated the Balochistan crisis into the high-level Indo-Pak joint statement at Sharm el-Sheikh on July 16, 2009. Afghanistan, in unison with the international community, unabatedly claims a Taliban presence in the province's capital city of Quetta.
In fact, Balochistan is also an important transit route for NATO's military goods to Afghanistan. Unsettled, the Baloch-Islamabad conflict will have a damaging impact on Obama's troops-surge plan in Afghanistan. In 2009, there was an unprecedented increase in attacks on NATO supplies in the region. The weak-kneed political administration in Balochistan is incapable of protecting and guaranteeing the safe passage of much-needed supplies to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Simmering unrest in the resource-rich and second largest populated province of Sindh has remained unaccounted for. The Sindhis, including the Baloch natives, are politically alienated and their social and economic participation is restricted to very few areas. No doubt, ethnically carved institutions are one of the major reasons behind repeated ethnic unrest in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, where security and economic institutions have mainly been encroached upon by non-natives.
Socio-economic and political priorities in multi-ethnic Pakistan are not arranged on a fair and transparent scale. Evident political and economic inequalities are widening the gap among the communities and regions. Political questions are being responded to by absolute force. Human and basic rights are not recognised and intimidation is the only tool to keep dissidents silent.
Repeated military rule and ethnocracy in Pakistan have shattered the very basics of political affairs, where Islamabad employs undesired and unpopular policies by force on non-core groups. Society in Pakistan is divided along ethnic, sectarian and regional lines. Only a few districts in central Punjab, which are the core beneficiaries of the state, are peaceful and thriving. However, populations in the resource-rich and strategically significant regions of Sindh and Balochistan are starving.
The US, being a major stakeholder in the peace and security of the region, bears the responsibility to look beyond the Taliban issue and encourage Pakistan's super-establishment to fairly and peacefully resolve the political conflict in Balochistan. The monetary and military approach must be part of a consequential discourse with the government of Pakistan to integrate FATA into the NWFP without further delay, and establish a more modern but decentralised governance mechanism for the region.
No doubt, the successful termination of the exhausting war in Afghanistan is reliant on regional actors, including Pakistan, which is going through a severe internal crisis. The country's old-fashioned institutions are unable to deal with delicate challenges.
Understanding the underlying causes of the unfolding crises in Pakistan and their timely resolution is in the interest of regional peace and security.
The writer is a Baloch leader and a former Senator. He is a Research Fellow at Inter-parliamentary Union Geneva, Switzerland, and can be reached at balochbnp@gmail.com
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C03%5C28%5Cstory_28-3-2010_pg3_5
