The Baluchistan Issue

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What in your opinion is the best course of action for the Pakistani establishment?

dean:

.... some minor quibbles you did not elaborate on;)

--part of what is balochistan now was owned by Oman...think they gave up title...or were persuaded to give up as late as `68 or `78...

--the zahiris or naziris who inhabit a part of balochistan are nominal muslims who perform their haj in balochistan every year...

khair...

...the real beef of the baluchis is the same as those of the rest of the disenfanchised paksitanis...that the occupying army is a god unto itslef...rides rough shod over them...witness the spineless response to the rape?

rgds

t

t

Ans # 1 - Gowadar/Makran coastline was purchased from Oman

Ans # 2 - Its ``Zikri`` tribe who perform Hajj in Baluchistan. Someone was also telling me that they offer prayers in numbers, for example bismillah has a number 786 and similarly Alhamdolillah has its own number and so on and so forth - hence they are called zikri.

I was watching ``Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath`` news program on Geo, the popular cable channel on Friday. Kamran Khan interviewed Nawab Akbar Bugti over the phone, who claimed that the Sui incident was sparked by the administration`s coverup of Dr. Shazia`s rape case. Bugti accused Captain Hammad ( a DSG employee ) of raping Dr. Shazia along with 2 accomplices.

Later Kamran Khan also interviewed Capt Hammad over the phone. Hammad denied the allegation and announced that he is voluntarily surrendering himself to the authorities to prove his innocence. If proven guilty, he would accept the verdict. But if proven innocent, the people making these false accusations (i.e. Nawab Bugti ) should be severely punished for tarnishing Hammad`s reputation and tormenting Hammad`s wife & family.

If the judicial inquiry exonerates Captain Hammad, this would severely damage the integrity and moral position of Baluchi nationalists.

If the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts, then it is perhaps better be content with the parts.

When you have an agitation at this level and to this extent, the foremost quesiton should be ``what the heck did we do wrong`` and not ``what is the best way to crush this``.

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What is going to happen in Baluchistan will be interesting. The last action taken against the Baluchis was by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He ordered the bombing of certain parts of Baluchistan. If my history is correct, during that action, Nawab Akbar Bugti was the Chief Minister. So he was on the bombing side. Now, he is on the other side.

The problem with Baluchistan is that one rarely gets to hear any Baluchi voices, other than the Sardars. And they obviously have their own vested interests. There are only four or five of them. The more Baluchistan gets developed, the more power they lose.

Uptil now, they ran the province. However, in this elections they have been defeated to a great extent by the maulvis. The MMA is a national party (like PPP, PML) and thus would not support provincial nationalism. If it takes over all of Baluchstan, then the Sardars have had it.

On the other hand, Baluchistan is the most backward part of Pakistan (and maybe the whole world). It produces Pakistan`s key resource - Sui gas. The sardars want more royalties from that. I am not sure what the govt. wants. But the rest of the country is run by this natural resource.

Another fear the Baluchis (or at least their sardars) have is that, due to Gwadar etc., Baluchistan will be swarmed by professionals and labor from other provinces. This is bound to happen, if Baluchistan develops. It has zero human resource base.

What is even more interesting are the attitudes of the Pakistani press. The English press supported the action against Waziristan, while it opposes any action against Baluchistan. Why would that be? I think it is because Waziristan leaders are relgious, while the Baluchi sardars are generally secular. And the English press generally tends to use that as a criteria.

For all the Indians salivating over Baluchistan turning into an Kashmir, I think you are greatly jumping the gun. Unlike Kashmiris, Baluchis do not want to separate. They want more money for their resources (at least their sardars do), within Pakistan. They have willingly joined Pakistan. All Pakistani ethnicities know they are better off with Pakistan than outside it. Other than joining with Iran (which will not want to piss-off Pakistan by encouraging it), where exactly will Baluchistan go? Their economy would completely crumble without Pakistan...........

Moreso, there are twice as many Baluchis in Sind (Sindhi speaking) than there are in Baluchistan. And a large chunk of Southern Punjab is Baluchi also. So a large majority of the ethnic Baluchis live outside Baluchistan. Infact, only half of the population of Baluchistan, itself, is actually Baluch. The rest are Pathans, Rajputs, Jats, Punjabis and Muhajirs. The most politically powerful Baluchi sardar, Farooq Leghari - head of the Leghari tribe - actually is from Punjab.

The similiarities with indian Kashmir are more with East Pakistan. And East Pakistan already separated...........However, Indians could fund an insurgency there. India may already be doing so (who knows, other than Manmohan Singh). I don`t know how receptive the Baluchi sardars would be to Indian help. There general motto is we are Muslims first, Baluchis second, and Pakistanis third........Two of them Balakh Mazari and Zafar Jamali have been Prime Minsiters of Pakistan............

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I wish people would write articles with some knowledge of History and the politics of the area. Putting news clipping from Jang Akhbar together and Googling for references can only produce this kind of half baked articles.

First a few words about Sadar Akbar Khan Bugti, the new champion of women rights and honor in Pakistan.

Sardar Bugti had a son: Salim Bugti. Salim was the biggest womanizer in whole Balochistan. From the coast of Makran to the brothels in Karachi, Salim was well known. It is a strong possibility that Salim Bugti raped a few Baloch women on his way to notoriety. Salim Bugti was murdered in a shootout with rival Bugtis about 2 or 3years ago.

Saradr Akber Bugti had another son: Talat Bugti. Talal killed his wife of one year by shoving cocaine down her throat after beating her mercilessly for hours. I think his wife’s name was Samina and she was the daughter of the Chief Secretary of Balochistan.
Talal too was murdered by the same rival Bugti group that killed his brother Salim. Talal was the first to go some five odd years ago.

Akber Bugti spent all his life in Karachi but now he can’t leave Dera Bugti because the same group that killed his sons would kill him too. More about that later.

I also hear that now Sardar Akber Khan Bugti is also a champion of Baloch rights. Good for him.
I know some Baloch who would blacken his face, shave his beard and roll him down the highest mountain in Balochistan. This Mir Jaffar of Balochistan has been betraying Balochistan for at least 40 years now. He will continue doing that until some Baloch finds a way to make him meet his departed sons.
Way back in the 1960s pretty much all Baloch Sardars were in jail. The first one to come out was our own Akbar Khan Bugti. He was told that he would lose his royalties from Gas, if he stayed too long in the jail.

Flashback…1973, the army and ZAB went after the Baloch one more time. Who betrayed the Baloch? Our own Akbar Khan Bugti. He was made governor of Balochistan for about two years. And who was the only Baloch Sardar that welcomed the army in 1977? Our own Akbar Bugti! Baloch, who suffered the most in ZAB era, could not find it in their hearts to support and welcome the army but dear Sardar Bugti had no qualms at all.
What motivates this scum of the earth? Money! Pure greed! Anything else is just pure baloney and stories made up by the gutter press in Pakistan.

What are the problems in Balochistan?
Several: But the current problem is the dispute over the Sui fields royalties.

There was time in Balochistan when all Bugtis would listen to this scum but times have changed now. Bugti has several sub tribes and some of those tribes want their share from the royalties. The Gas is from Sui but the pipeline goes thru the rival area. They block the pipeline, attack it and stop the flow. They also killed Bugti’s sons Salim and Talal.
Sadar Bugti did make up with them after Salim’s death but there are also stories in Balochistan that he betrayed them soon after.

The Pak govt made a deal with rival Bugtis to spread the money around. Pipelines were safe but this scum is still not willing to share and since he controls the fountainhead he can disrupt the supplies too.
The man is cunning no doubt about it! And now behind that presumed rape, Ye Army ko topi pahna raha hai! (Not that I have any problem with that!)
There are serious doubts about this rape case. It won’t take long to find out the real story but my doubt is that it may turn out to be one of this scum’s games that he has been concocting and playing for almost half a century.

More about this article and distortion of history later… Just a hint! There never were 60k Baloch fighting the Pak army in 1973. That is another one of those urban legends.

With regard to natural resources of balchistan, in normal democratic federations, the resources usually belong to the state. For example in India, the gas reserves that were found in krishna-godavari basin in andhra pradesh belong to the state of andhra. The center can plan the development of these rources and streamline and prioritize, but they have to compensate the states by purchasing the land, and acquiring the rights from the state. Also almost all states in india have regulations on extent of local population to be used in idnustries such as mining, gas/oil exploration, defence installations etc. It`s not perfect but the system seems to be working.
If balochistan province were given fair price for the gas extracted from it`s soil, and local people were employed then grievances would not exist.
The whole issue of state/provincial rights is based on the concept that the state and it`s people are not subjects of the center (or some other dominating province in the federation) but are soviereign (subject to constitutional limitations). Hence the center has to negotiate with the state on usage of it`s resources as if it were negotiating with another country, i.e. pay fair price. Otherwise, if the center can come and take what ever they want, it is nothing but plain colonialism of the ruling class over the rest of the country. And in pakistan`s case, the balochi`s are fighting against the center , which unfortunately appears to be dominated by punjab due to the demographic imbalance in the federation.
Similar appears to be the problem in sindh where 67% of the national taxes generated in sindh, most of which is spent on punjab dominated army and the rest is given on population basis to punjab predominantly. This is clear transfer of wealth into punjab.

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I find the balochvoice web site really interesting.. especially the baluch history.. Thay say actually there is a group of people among baluch who are supposed to be ethnically dravidians from thousands of years ago .. wow..

anyway, I found this instrument of accession signed by the khan of kalat
http://www.balochvoice.com/information/instrument_of_accession_of_kalat_state.htm

Also the history,as mentioned also in the article above, says that a number of people did not agree to the accession. and also the accession was supposed to be ratified by the baloch council or legislature, which refused to ratify it.. and then the pakistan army entered in 1947.. that was supposed to be the first revolt.. so the accession actaully stands annulled legally which appears to be one of the reasons many of the baloch sardars refuse pakistans rule .. Also i read that about 50 leaders who revolted were promised amnesty and when they came out were caught by th earmy and hung.. that is a bad precedent

I read a book section by Dr.Ambedkar (http://www.ambedkar.org/pakistan/ read section 2) that more than 50% of the revenues collected by the british in india were used to support the indian army, which was comprised of more than 50% punjabi and NWFP muslims.. this in a way is transfer of wealth from rest of india to current provinces of pakistan... Dr.Ambedkar does an extremely good deep insightful analysis on the whole issue of partition.. and by the way he did that in 1945 or 1946 before partition...

And I think that pakistani army used to that special privilege (vs rest of country) used a similar tool to transfer wealth from east pakistan to west paksitan.. and now the same tool is in use to transfer balochistan`s natural wealth and sindh`s industrial wealth to punjab.. I am not sure if this is a deliberate ploy by the pakistani punjab or is it an inevitable result of army domination in a security state..
But as long as such rtansfer of wealth is there, the other provinces will feel exploited.

Romair#9, I think the Bugti sardar said that they are first baluchi for many centuries, next muslims for 1000 years and pakistani`s for 50 years..

India cannot have any interest direct in Baluchistan, which is 40% of Pakistan`s territory, and less than 5% of the population. Its geo-strategic location being close to the Middle East and non-Arab nature probably of interest to the U.S. and the West. From the days of the Belfour Declaration, and Lawrence of Arabia, the west has secured bases in the vicinity of oil-fields where the terriroty is large (Saudi Arabia), and small (UAE), but muslim population is always small. To the western strategists, an unrest in Baluchistan may be intentional, to keep Pakistani Generals behave as they order. Baluchistan sits between Iran and Afganistan, and has coastal line. And American interest in central Asia is certainly growing. The oil pipeline from Central Asia (sparsely populated muslim countries), Afganistan (the U.S. already has a base there now). Sparsely populated Baluchistan where Saradars can be controlled with fist full of more dollars (if Romair is correct), is a formula the U.S. and the west have always looked to buy power to control its interests, whether in UAE or Kuwait.

Therefore, the ball causing that is causing all this commotion in Baluchistan if it is not in Pakistani court, then it could well be under control thru remote strings in the West. For the west, to raise the standard to 6 million Baluchis, giving $6B per year revenue in return of secured oil and gas pipleine will make all five or six Baluchi sardars (their number is from Romairs post) very rich, and per capita income of Baluchistan can be easily pushed to $1,000 per Baluchi to bring visible prosperity in muslim Baluchistan. Therefore, the question really is how much the U.S. and the west can trust Pakistan to secure their interests in that part of the world, would really decide the fate of Baluchistan.

Anil Kapuria

Romair #9

`` The problem with Baluchistan is that one rarely gets to hear any Baluchi voices, other than the Sardars. And they obviously have their own vested interests. There are only four or five of them. The more Baluchistan gets developed, the more power they lose.``

Who does not have vested interests ? The Pakistani army ??

`` Uptil now, they ran the province. However, in this elections they have been defeated to a great extent by the maulvis. The MMA is a national party (like PPP, PML) and thus would not support provincial nationalism. If it takes over all of Baluchstan, then the Sardars have had it. ``

You really believe the MMA won a free and fair election.

`` On the other hand, Baluchistan is the most backward part of Pakistan (and maybe the whole world). It produces Pakistan`s key resource - Sui gas. The sardars want more royalties from that. I am not sure what the govt. wants. But the rest of the country is run by this natural resource.``

Is this any different from East Pakistanis claim of exploitation by West Pakistani ? Why not pay the Baluchis royalties comparable to market prices.

`` Another fear the Baluchis (or at least their sardars) have is that, due to Gwadar etc., Baluchistan will be swarmed by professionals and labor from other provinces. This is bound to happen, if Baluchistan develops. It has zero human resource base.``

They were under Pakistani rule for 50 years. What do you expect ?

`` For all the Indians salivating over Baluchistan turning into an Kashmir, I think you are greatly jumping the gun. Unlike Kashmiris, Baluchis do not want to separate. They want more money for their resources (at least their sardars do), within Pakistan. They have willingly joined Pakistan. All Pakistani ethnicities know they are better off with Pakistan than outside it. Other than joining with Iran (which will not want to piss-off Pakistan by encouraging it), where exactly will Baluchistan go? Their economy would completely crumble without Pakistan...........``

If Baluchistan has all the natural gas why would their economy crumble ?

`` Moreso, there are twice as many Baluchis in Sind (Sindhi speaking) than there are in Baluchistan. And a large chunk of Southern Punjab is Baluchi also. So a large majority of the ethnic Baluchis live outside Baluchistan. Infact, only half of the population of Baluchistan, itself, is actually Baluch. The rest are Pathans, Rajputs, Jats, Punjabis and Muhajirs. The most politically powerful Baluchi sardar, Farooq Leghari - head of the Leghari tribe - actually is from Punjab.``

If there are more Kashmiri Muslims living in Delhi than Srinagar do their grievances become less valid ?

`` The similiarities with indian Kashmir are more with East Pakistan. And East Pakistan already separated...........However, Indians could fund an insurgency there. India may already be doing so (who knows, other than Manmohan Singh). I don`t know how receptive the Baluchi sardars would be to Indian help. There general motto is we are Muslims first, Baluchis second, and Pakistanis third........Two of them Balakh Mazari and Zafar Jamali have been Prime Minsiters of Pakistan...........``

East Pakistan is a unique situation. It is separated from the other wing by thousands of miles of hostile territorry. It is the only third world state created from another third world state during the cold war. East Pakistanis outnumbered West Pakistanis. The ratio between Indians and Kashmiri Muslims is 100:1. Pakistan armed with nukes could not have prevented East Pakistan from becoming independent.

I dunno about Mazari. Jamali was a figurehead. Everyone knows it. When was the last time a Pakistani Prime Minister had real power ?