In Kohlu, the administrative headquarters of the Marri tribal area in Balochistan, President Musharraf outlined during an address his development thrust for remote areas like Kohlu. He announced development projects worth Rs 1.5 billion for district Kohlu, comprising 35 schemes that include the Rs 1 billion Kohlu-Sibi Road, a network of 14 roads for the district worth Rs 40.5 million, electrification of villages Rs 10 million, upgrading the intermediate college in Kohlu to degree level Rs 20 million, a high school in the tehsil and a cadet school in Kohlu, not to mention a Rs 50 million water supply scheme based on 23 tube wells. All this attention to Kohlu is part of the overall development programme for the much neglected province in the past, in which the mega projects figure prominently.
The president promised an increase in oil and gas exploration and the operationalisation of Gwadar Port by next summer. The deep sea port would facilitate a trade corridor that would not only benefit Balochistan and Pakistan, but also help Afghanistan, Central Asia, China and the Gulf open up to the world. Local residents, the president claimed, were being trained in Gwadar and at the dams projects such as Mirani and Subakzai. Apart from the employment opportunities for local people in these projects, thousands of Baloch were being recruited into the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and Coast Guards. The 500 kms long Kachhi Canal will cost Rs 40 billion and irrigate 700,000 acres in Balochistan, while Punjab is surrendering a 300 kms stretch of land for this project. All these projects seen together, would accelerate development, increase employment and bring prosperity to the province, was the gist of the president’s remarks.
The president vehemently asserted that saboteurs and anti-development elements would not be allowed to deter the process of socio-economic progress. As though in answer to the president, eight rockets crashed into a base of the FC on the outskirts of Kohlu, luckily without causing any casualties. A spokesman of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) telephoned the Quetta Press Club to claim responsibility and threaten more such attacks. The BLA is spearheading a simmering insurgency in the province, with regular attacks being staged on infrastructure and the security forces.
As an aside, consider the case of the neighbouring Bugti area. After the bloody confrontation in Sui between the security forces and the Bugtis in the wake of the Dr Shazia Khalid rape incident, there has been an uneasy calm. Akbar Bugti, the tribe’s chief, fulminates every so often that despite the ’ceasefire’ and standing down of the forces of both sides, a military operation is imminent. The government has been strenuously denying this, having initiated a process of negotiations with Akbar Bugti, led by PML president and the party’s secretary general, Chaudry Shujaat and Syed Mushahid Hussain respectively. Chaudry Shujaat had set up three committees to address the long standing grievances of the Baloch. Of these, one committee, that headed by Waseem Sajjad and charged with looking into the constitutional considerations surrounding the demand for provincial autonomy, failed to report after profound disagreements amongst its members. The other two committees, however, led by Mushahid and Senator Dilawar Abbas, have duly reported.
Mushahid’s committee was to examine the political aspects of the Balochistan imbroglio, while Senator Abbas’ committee was to address the issue of gas and oil royalties. The former committee recommended a development package for Balochistan. The latter laid down the parameters for doing justice to Balochistan on the question of lower royalties for gas than in the rest of the country. Despite the fact that the government received these reports months ago, there has been no further news on them. Is it a case, as usual, of committees being formed to defuse an immediate crisis, only for their reports and recommendations to gather dust once the immediate crisis has passed?
The president would do well to re-examine who is resisting his development plans in Balochistan and why. The Baloch nationalist opponents of his vision for Balochistan are not against development per se, but opposed to development from the top down without the participation of, or real sharing with, the local people. This does not appear an unbridgeable divide if the will to settle matters exists. But if processes intended to create the space for negotiated settlements, such as the committees mentioned above, are then left to wither on the vine, it can only end up exacerbating existing bitterness and making long standing problems even more intractable.
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