Munir Ahmed Baloch
During the past few years, drought in Balochistan had badly affected the inhabitants, animals and crops. Despite 43.6 percent area of the country, Balochistan is thinly populated as compared to other provinces. The Army undertook relief operations in consultation and collaboration with the federal and provincial governments. The Army and civil administration during those days of starvation extended sincere helping hands to the people.
This year many natural calamities hit Balochistan. Natural calamities are configured by nature and perhaps they are nature’s own mechanism of striking equilibrium. Rains and snow broke all previous records this year. Unprecedented rains in the southern part of Balochistan flooded river Basooli in February 2005, causing colossal damage to the coastal highway. Shadi Kor Dam broke due to persistent rains, severely affecting the surrounding villages. Aakra Dam was full to capacity and overflowing its spillways, flooding villages west of Suntsar in district Gawadar. One bridge on Turbat Mand road and two bridges on RCD highway were washed away along with a bus carrying 20 passengers from Turbat to Pasni, killing all passengers on board. Almost 5,000 acres of land in District Gawadar, Turbat, Lasbela and Awaran were inundated, affecting 29 villages and 3,000 inhabitants. In this time of crisis, the Army along with Navy, FC and Coast Guards embarked upon relief operations. The Corps Commander along with the Governor Balochistan took an aerial view of all the affected areas despite hazardous weather on February 11, 2005. Army troops, helicopters and other relief equipment were immediately moved towards these areas. One could see that the Army was not only involved in carrying out rescue and relief operations but was also coordinating with the Navy and Coast Guards in Pasni, Ormara and the coastal highway, in addition to the FC in District Turbat, Awaran, Bela, Kharan and Lasbela.
Consistent bad weather circumvented the flights of aircraft and helicopters but trucks carrying relief goods reached the affected areas. Whenever weather conditions used to improve even for a few hours, PAF C-130 aircraft flew from Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi to deliver relief goods at Gawadar, Pasni and Turbat. People stranded in these areas due to blockage of the coastal highway and limited commercial flights were also rescued by PAF C-130 aircraft.
President General Pervez Musharraf won the hearts of the people of Gawadar, Pasni and Suntsar when he, along with the Corps Commander of Balochistan, visited the affected areas immediately after the eruption of the calamity. After landing at Gawadar, the president spoke live on Geo TV. He also took an aerial view of Suntsar and surrounding areas affected by floods and spoke to the public at Pasni. Corps Commander Balochistan, Lieutenant General Hamid Rab Nawaz also frequently visited the flood-hit areas. Major General Muhammad Siddique supervised relief operations personally and established mobile medical teams and reserved one helicopter for emergency evacuation.
The northern part of Balochistan though was not hit by floods, received an unprecedented snowfall. Once again the Army moved into action and carried out many successful relief and rescue operations. Despite the chilly weather that hampered every movement, the brave jawans continued to save people from the cold grip of calamity.
Aakra Dam in the southern part of Balochistan caused a second spell of floods. However, the timely passage of information to inhabitants saved many lives. About 25 villages were affected. Major Fahim along with his gallant 15 jawans played a memorable role in saving the lives of the people of Gawadar. The brave hearts tied themselves up with ropes and got into the dam to break the safety plug in pitch-dark night when water in the dam was increasing six inches after every 15 minutes. The intake of water was 40,000 cusecs against the capacity of 13,000 cusecs and the safety plug was supposed to activate automatically but it did not. Had action been delayed for a few more seconds, the future dream city of Gawadar would have been washed away.
The people of Balochistan who put their lives at stake and saved thousands of people acknowledged this gallant action. About 5-6,000 people were affected, who were provided with relief goods by the armed forces. Nearly 600 people were rescued and moved to safe places. About 800 people were provided medical assistance and free medicines. Seven helicopters of Army and Navy and one C-130 aircraft of PAF provided relief goods to the affected areas. In a nutshell, the Army, Navy, FC and coast guards successfully undertook a tremendous task. Besides the dedicated efforts of the Army, FC and coast guards officers and jawans in providing relief to flood-affected people in Gawadar, Turbat and Pasni, the aviators and PAF also deserve recognition. Aviators undertook about 162 sorties and PAF 14 sorties to deliver relief goods in these areas. 12,303 persons were evacuated and 15,745 were given medical aid.
Relief goods contributed by donors and arranged by the Army, FC and coast guards weighed about 548 tons. The role of the armed forces, including FC and coast guards, is indeed appreciable for this noble cause. May God the Almighty bless these brave hearts that always remain on their toes to protect us internally and externally.
It is however very sad that during this time of disaster, there were some elements that tried to gain political mileage at the cost of national integrity. They tried to capitalize on this opportunity to alienate the people of Balochistan from their accredited leaders. Many fabricated stories came to the fore that had no truth in them. Some selfish people even dissuaded the innocent people of Gawadar not to sell their lands to outsiders.
It is curious however that in the early days of the calamity the law and order situation remained stable. But as soon as the Army, Navy and FC had managed the disaster well, trouble started fomenting again. This mindset should be changed.
Understanding Balochistan is really a complex task. It cannot be understood behind closed doors, imaginary thoughts and barrowed ideas. Instead it should be seen through the prism of domestic, regional as well as global politics. If we look into the history of Balochistan and the way different governments have handled difficult situations, it seems that the present stalemate is likely to continue. Apparently, Chaudry Sahib has resolved the Dera Bugti issue in consultation with Mushahid Hussain. But if we deeply analyze the problem as well as the historical context, the present development appears only a temporary arrangement based on personalized handling.
What we haven’t yet done is approach the problem in its true perspective that involves making contacts with common people, that is the middle class, instead of Nawabs and Sardars. If we keep shuttling between Nawabs and Sardars no issue can hope to be resolved peacefully nor development can find its way smoothly into the back lanes of Balochistan, where the tribal system is still thriving. Reform in the tribal system is imperative for development in Balochistan.
However the situation in Balochistan is not altogether without a silver lining. The people of Balochistan are beginning to see through the situation critically and the day is not far when they shall be free from the clutches of those who exploit their innocence.
http://www.thepost.com.pk/Arc_OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=6057&catid=11&date=09/19/2005&fcatid=14 |
