Militarization of Balochistan
01/02/2007
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
The Baloch people cannot simply be wished away and their voice must be heard on all issues pertaining to Balochistan. Continued disregard of their justified demands and fears can only strengthen the increasing disaffection and distrust engendered by a history of unceasing injustices and affronts. Any state that chooses to ignore the wishes of its people does so at its own peril.
The government, contrary to its protestations and claims that it is not interested in physically subjugating Balochistan with its military muscle, is in fact busy accomplishing that mission with indecent haste and, as evidence shows, seemingly with a deadline in mind.
New cantonments are planned at Kohlu, Khuzdar and Dera Bugti, although there are already four major cantonments and 59 mini-cantonments along with approximately 600 check posts in the province. The PAF has six bases while the PN has three.
These are the physical aspects of the policy of militarily subjugating the Baloch and of the effort to crush any resistance to unjust exploitation and expansion. Sadly no one heeds the protests of the Baloch people against this unjust build up.
Plans for a new port and airport at Gwadar have to a large extent been executed and are the main subject of this article. Gwadar, located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, close to the Straits of Hormuz in the Gulf, through which more than 13 million barrels of oil pass daily, is the object of the government?s attention because of its importance in the achievement of its military objectives.
In 1783 the Khan of Kalat had granted Gwadar to the defeated Sultan Taimur of Muscat. In 1958, the Gwadar enclave was transferred to its mother province after payment of £ 3 million.
There must be regret in the corridors of power at not having then made it part of the federally administered areas or of Sindh, in the same way that British Administered Balochistan?s area of DG Khan was appropriated by Punjab in 1950. The Tumandars had signed the agreement under threat of forsaking their large land holdings if they didn?t opt for Punjab. A monument to that injustice stands at Fort Munro, 6470 feet above sea level.
The strategically located Gwadar port is intended to handle transit trade with landlocked Central Asia, Afghanistan and western China. The 14.5-metre deep draft there would be able to berth fifth generation ships and super-sized aircraft carriers, etc. It is expected to be inaugurated in March this year.
A news report on January 17th mentioned the uproar in the Senate regarding the construction of the new Gwadar airport, which is being built 26 km away to the northeast of the existing airport towards Pasni. It was disclosed that disregarding the normal procedure, the Rs.1.05 billion for 6,500 acres were released to the Military Estates Officer (MEO) in Quetta instead of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
This land has now been acquired by the Military Land and Cantonments (MLC) and this makes it the property of the Pakistan Army. This fact thoroughly exposes the claim that Gwadar is being developed as a commercial project.
The area of land being acquired is by itself of importance and reveals ulterior motives. It would surprise the readers to know that the JFK airport New York, one of the largest in the world, covers only 4,930 acres. In November 2006 alone, the total number of flights there were 34,361 and the number of passengers 3,484,448.
Gwadar airport will be more than twice the size of London?s Heathrow (2,965 acres), where a plane lands or takes off every 46 seconds at peak time and it handled 128 million passengers in the year 2005. The volume of air traffic at Gwadar can easily be calculated. This oversized place is obviously required for other objectives.
Apparently the only purpose for acquiring so much land for the Army can only be to build a mammoth airbase not only for its air force but also Cruise missile carrying planes and B-52s of its allies, thereby strengthening its role as henchman of Washington?s neocons, and moreover using it for the purpose of subjugating the Baloch even more methodically and harshly.
The bases in this country are definitely used for clandestine purposes as well, because on January 25, Senators quizzed Defence Secretary Lt.Gen. (r) Tariq Waseem Ghazi about the use of Pakistani airbases by US forces and the money earned from leasing them, termed as blood money by some Senators because the US air force is using them for strikes in Afghanistan and Bajaur. The gentleman simply preferred to stonewall, although the people have a right to know if their lives are being endangered for measly dollars.
An equally important aspect of the Gwadar project, with equally adverse consequences, is the increase in the number of non-locals. The population there is around 160,000 people while the work of building the airport and the deep sea port will require many times more people. Note that the number of people being used to build the 5th Terminal on 260 acres at Heathrow was expected to be over 60,000, requiring 37 million manhours. That is a work conscious environment and has a fully mechanized workforce. The number of people required here would, even at a conservative estimate, be at least double the existing population of Gwadar.
The federal authorities had initially envisaged inducting 2.5 million people from outside the province but the increase in size and scope of the projects and the military purposes that they will serve has now boosted this to 5 million. This massive influx will naturally deprive the Baloch of their rights. The promises that they will not be allowed to vote are simply an eyewash. Here all promises are given to be flouted and violated; remember the uniform?
These projects are serving the twofold purpose of militarizing the province and relegating the local population to minority status.The burgeoning population of non-locals here has soured the already touchy relations of the Baloch people with the Centre. The ratio of non-locals is set to increase with expansion of projects. This only adds fuel to the fire by reinforcing the sense of estrangement and alienation.
Unfortunately the establishment has not only been indiscriminately militarizing the province but is also culpable of nuclearizing it by establishing three nuclear testing sites and six missile testing ranges without even bothering about the consent of the people who will suffer. Any conflict with an enemy of some reckoning would entail a response, nuclear or conventional, against these installations and endanger the already sketchy existence of the people of those areas.
Chagai was used as the nuclear test site. The Soviet Union used Kazakhstan as its nuclear testing ground and they still suffer from the aftereffects as do the areas of US nuclear testing of Bikini Atoll and the Nevada Desert. These areas are far away from the chosen ones and only the children of lesser gods are made to suffer.
When France was carrying out nuclear tests on the Marurua Atoll and claiming they were entirely safe, the people of the South Seas said then they should be safely carried out near Paris. The people of Balochistan too have a similar viewpoint.
The powerful vested interests prefer to ignore the appalling effects their ill-advised projects, experiments and adventures wreak on the people whose feelings and locations are too remote to arouse their sensitivity or sensibility. To them they are for all intents and purposes as expendable as the endangered houbara bustards are for the spineless authorities here who suck up to those fancy Sheikhs and Emirs of the Gulf with a lot of unearned income at their disposal and know how to use it for quite unsavoury practices of hunting and other sordid activities when in the Land of the Pure.
Tailpiece: United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan conferred his country?s highest award on Musharraf. This left me wondering, because in spite of my best efforts I couldn?t remember any of his services for the Ummah or the country.
Then I remembered the January 7th report in a national daily: ?Dignitaries from Gulf get permits to hunt protected houbara?. The report listed the areas where which Sheikh or Emir got the permission to make houbaras suffer the Dodo?s fate.
The only privileged hunter who had been allowed to hunt in three provinces of this God forsaken country was the UAE President. Now that service does deserve the highest award.
The writer has been associated with the Baloch national struggle |
