Rumour has it: Baluchistan is Mine!

Nilofer Qazi
March 2012

I had little interest in adding my two bits to the recent interest and discussion on Baluchistan, but listening to Bramdagh Bugti on television made me livid! I am a citizen of Pakistan, not so proud these days, but nevertheless. My forefathers settled in Baluchistan and my grandmother known as ‘Mummy’ to All, in her home town-Pishin, would turn in her grave at the state of affairs in her beloved home.

Baluchistan represents the failure of Pakistan.  It represents the greed and refusal to be just and provide good governance to its citizens. I hated what Baramdagh Bugti said but I loathe even more the reality that made him say what he said. He can be ‘fixed’ or ‘disappeared’ as is fashionable these days who speak uncomfortable truths.

When the Baloch raise their voices against the false guardians of Pakistan they do it on behalf of all the exploited and the oppressed in Pakistan. It is ironic that the Baloch nationalists are actually the most Pakistani of nationalists. Hilarious!

As for the Sardars of the Baloch they are like the Khans, the Maliks, the Chaudhrys, the Waderas  all over Pakistan  add to those are the ‘new’ elites, the military, the religious and the urban bosses. Members of elites, naturally party, hate and kill each other but what they commonly share is exploit the poor and the weak. In this situation to expect the majority of the Baloch population to revolt against Baramdagh and his ilk is asking them to join a ‘plan of action’ devised by outsiders against them. The Baloch are poor and illiterate but they are not stupid.

What gives Baramdagh Bugti the right to decide on behalf of a minority elite in Baluchistan to declare that the majority of Baluchistan wants independence?  On what basis does he assert this? Has there been a referendum on this issue? Who does he represent?

Baluchistan is the largest province of Pakistan; in the absence of an updated census (since 1998), the population is majority Pathan with many other ethnic groups including Brohi,  Makrani besides the Baluch.  Baluchistan belongs to all of us. We are all Baloch.

The state of Pakistan, under ZAB, over threw a democratically elected NAP government in the 1970s and sent in the army too crush its own population who were demanding equal rights and a share in the natural resources they provide the nation! This is a fact. A criminal reality no one can deny.

The continued army operations in Baluchistan fuels this discontent and  protects those who would take advantage of a bad situation. The extra judicial murder of Sardar Akbar Bugti only strengthened the idea of  the perpetual persecution of the Baloch.  Where rights, development, strengthening  governance should be our focus, idiotic archaic divisive ideas are gaining ground. We have allowed this to happen. No one else is to blame.  What have our craven elites chosen to do? Vent their feeble anger at a moron called Rohrabacker in the USA rather than address the national challenge that injustice and exploitation results. Tragically it looks like our current ‘elites’ are completely unfit to address this challenge. We  lost Bangladesh and blamed India. We are gaping at Baluchistan and blaming America?!

What is criminal negligence on our state’s part is that we understand the occupation of Afghanistan has fueled and strengthened the regressive Taliban and cannot understand what our unaccountable army can fester in our own province?!  No modern sane state should allow its army to manage the governance of its largest province.  Certainly not while we are pretending to be democratic!  No less an army which has lost everything it starts. The inability of the state to exercise its writ in law, governance, and development is a reflection of absolute political failure and has to be rectified immediately. If we are to be a democratic polity one cannot just talk, or ask for forgiveness or make sweeping statements of reparations, actions speak louder than words. The Baluchistan package announced so proudly by this government not only was pathetically patronizing but has altered none of the fundamental grievances of the entire population of the province.

The first step would be to remove the army from the province immediately. Initiate a census in the province to determine the profile and opinion(s) of your citizens there. Commit to develop the province which has the potential to carry the rest of the nation into the next century independent from donors and foreign reliance.

Baluchistan is not alone in the dismal treatment it has received from the state of Pakistan. To have areas which are not under the writ of the state such as FATA FANA makes a mockery of the notion of a modern state. We cannot argue in the community of nations to be treated as a sovereign responsible modern country when we have little sovereignty over our own. Our governing elites are mere servants who only know how to lord it over those who are fewer and weaker than themselves. As a result we have no good answer to Baramdagh barb : the Baloch do not care to be servants of servants.