By Ghayoor Ahmed
THE long simmering ethnic passion that resurfaced in Balochistan in 2004 and has recently resumed with greater intensity is a source of great anxiety to the people of Pakistan. The security forces are currently engaged in quelling the insurgency-like situation in the province.
President Pervez Musharraf’s recent declaration that the writ of the government will be restored in Balochistan indicates that a bigger military operation in that province might be on the cards. However, if Islamabad chose to resolve the on-going crisis in Balochistan by using force, the opposite would occur with serious consequences for the country, internally as well as externally.
The continuing failure of Islamabad to make adequate payment of royalty to the Balochistan provincial government and the tribal leaders in whose territory gas was found, the construction of Gwadar Port where non-Balochs are given special preferences to encourage investment and the planned construction of three new cantonments in the province there have been cited as the main reasons for the anger of the Baloch nationalists who have spearheaded anti-state militancy in the areas under their control.
Evidently, Islamabad’s carrot and stick policy has failed to woo the militants who have refused to call off their hostile activities which almost converge on insurgency. Armed clashes between the Baloch nationalists and the security forces have not only plunged Balochistan into a dangerous political imbroglio but have also shaken the very foundation of the federation of Pakistan.
Pakistan is one of the most ethnically and linguistically complex states of the world and despite the shared religion of its overwhelming Muslim population, its leaders could not evolve a viable political system for its ethno-linguistic population which caused regional tensions and prevented the country from gaining political stability. Denial of rights to them has created a sense of deprivation and despondency among the people of the smaller provinces, particularly in Balochistan, where it has assumed a violent form.
Regrettably, successive regimes in Islamabad, including the present one, have shied away from promoting meaningful and result-oriented reforms, political as well as economic, that would have ensured long-term and lasting benefits for the people of Balochistan and, instead, settled for the partial amelioration of their political and economic grievances which, for obvious reasons, remained inconsequential. Failure to address the widespread discontent among the poor masses in Balochistan was appalling. Surprisingly, Islamabad mollified those very elements in Balochistan who, taking advantage of the sufferings of the poor masses in the province, used them to promote their political, economic and other interests.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah had wanted Pakistan to be a federal state so that all its constituent units enjoyed equal rights and autonomy in accordance with the principles of natural justice and did not contend against each other on this account. Regrettably, however, after the establishment of Pakistan, the smaller provinces were denied their due share in the power structure of the country and the provincial autonomy was systematically curtailed by the oligarchy that controlled the federal government. A consistent policy of centralization has created disharmony between the federal government and the smaller provinces.
When General Pervez Musharraf assumed power in 1999, he had vowed to strengthen the federation by removing inter-provincial disharmony and restore national cohesion. Surprisingly, however, six years down the road, he has not been able to fulfil his promise and the national integration continues to be a crucial problem in Pakistan. For obvious reasons, the country cannot afford the dangerous alienation between the smaller provinces and Islamabad and inter-provincial jealousies.
Pakistan is a federation of four provinces and the Constitution of the country bestows autonomy on them. In other words, all the provinces continue to have their separate legal personality.
They have formed a federation state by transferring only a part of their sovereignty to that state. Accordingly, the relationship between the federation and its constituent units has to be governed on the basis of equitability and within the defined parameters enshrined in the Constitution. It is not a moral obligation to do so but a legal postulate of the federation. Any attempt to deviate from this sacrosanct principle will be a violation of the Constitution and a betrayal of faith.
According to President Pervez Musharraf, India is supporting the trouble-maker in Balochistan. It is no secret that India, through its diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, has been engaged in fomenting trouble in Balochistan. It is believed that the arms and ammunitions being used by the militants in Balochistan are coming from Afghanistan. Needless to say, India’s involvement in Balochistan may not have been possible without the consent of the United States which is virtually in control of Afghanistan.
The Indo-US nexus, which seems reasonably established, is not merely aimed at containing the growing influence of China in the region or preventing Pakistan from making inroads into the Central Asian states through the Gwadar Port, which both these countries consider anathema to their long-term interests in the region. Both are also keeping an eye on the strategically situated Balochistan to advance their regional and global interests and will not hesitate to weaken Pakistan or even opt for its fragmentation if the exigencies of their interests so required.
In this connection, it may be recalled that some time ago the US intelligence council published a report containing a grim assessment of Pakistan’s future. According to it, Pakistan would be paralyzed completely by 2015 as a result of ethnic conflicts and deteriorating political/economic mismanagement. More or less similar predictions have also been made by Robert D Kaplan, a senior Fellow at the New America Foundation in his article "Lawless Frontier." A similar dire prediction is contained in the US Department of Defence study undertaken by 15 US think-tanks. Prudence demands that these reports, though somewhat hypothetical, should not be summarily dismissed as actually containing the inner desires of their authors.
Pakistan is passing through a defining moment of its history and is faced with fateful choices. Its people should therefore muster the collective will to redress inequity and injustice rampant in the country, which breeds despair and despondency.
The current painful situation in Balochistan, which has ominous implications for the country, clearly presents a challenge to the state but also provides it an opportunity to make up for the lost time.
Democratization of Balochistan, which remains an alien concept there, is the only way forward that can rescue the toiling masses in the province from their economic woes and help in shaping their future.
The writer is a former ambassador.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/17/op.htm#3 |
