By Jawaid Mehmood
I went to Pakistan to visit my ailing mother. This gave me an opportunity to stay with her for almost 3 months. Although inflation is one of the major problems in the society right now in Pakistan, but the thing that concerned me the most was the way the issue of Balochistan is being handled by our authorities.
The saga of East Pakistan is still fresh in our memories and now the situation in Balochistan is pushing the country towards another volatile situation. What’s the use of these politicians & political parties if they can’t resolve this explosive issue in initial stages? We should learn lessons from our history. We should realize that Balochistan is of great interest to the big fishes of this world because of the strategic geographical location as well as the enormous natural energy resources that are present in Balochistan. That is the primary reason that US & other world powers want to have good diplomatic relations with Pakistan.
The problems arising in Balochistan is a very sensitive issue, especially if you consider that the next target of American aggression could be Iran. Balochistan is a very big province area-wise, as I said earlier its blessed with tremendous amount of natural energy resources.
According to NASA, Balochistan has more OIL than Saudi Arabia. Natural Gas, precious stones, coal, marble and many other treasures are hidden in the wilderness of Balochistan.
It has been 57 years since our existence in the world, it’s a pity that we still haven’t resolved our outstanding issues, if in fact we had resolved these issues and these resources of Balochistan would have been used mutually and fairly, Pakistan would have been in a much better economic situation.
Balochistan issue is at the height of its complexity right now and in such situation the visit of Ms. Condoleezza Rice and the F-16 agreement poses a lot of questions. Is Pakistan going to be safer once we get these planes? Would this supply of F-16’s create a balance of power in the region? I mean what are the reasons that all of a sudden out of the blue Americans have agreed to release these F-16’s? Not too long ago they weren’t even interested in talking about this issue. Although Pakistan have bent backwards in order to accommodate Indians on all issues but India has been as stubborn as ever. India has been livid with America because of this agreement of F-16. Those Indians who are influential on Capital Hill in Washington have been lobbying extensively to some how get the delivery of these f-16’s cancelled. Consider this, according to the International Peace Research Institute India had the 3rd largest defense spending in the year 2002, and it has been going up ever since then as well. This goes to show what’s the real cause of arm’s race in the region.
India’s Army Chief its National Security advisor have decided to visit Israel in near future. The fact of the matter is that Israel will give India about 60 fighter jets by the year 2010. This is a very big blow to the balance of power in an already volatile region. India is also in contact with Germany, France & America to enhance its military might. Israel has already provided India with enormous support in their nuclear weapons program. In light of all these facts it’s quite evident that India in conjunction with Israel wants absolute supremacy in this region. This is in accordance with Israel’s plan to target Iran’s nuclear plan as well, when Israel has presence in the region it will be easier for them to keep an eye on the situation. Pakistan is also under tremendous pressure regarding nuclear issue of Iran. We have to be smarter and consider what is in our best interest rather than America’s. Pakistan should also be worried with the fact that manufacturing plant of F-16 could be transferred from America to India, how would that then affect Pakistan’s newly acquired fleet?
In modern times most wars are fought and won through superior intelligence & affective air force. In 1991 Iraq war, 250 F-16’s made 13,500 flights and dropped about 20,000 tons of explosives and won the war. Post 9/11 American air force, single handedly established control over Iraq & Afghanistan. Even though the presidential commission said in its report that intelligence for Iraq’s war was not correct at all. The information about WMD’s in Iraq was dead wrong. According to this Presidential commission, the information about the WMD’s that was shared with the authorities were fabricated. After this fiasco, now the same intelligence agencies are trying to alarm the govt. about the nuclear program of Iran. Do they have any credibility at this point?
Because of the faulty reports Americans bombarded Iraq and more than 100,000 lives were lost, thousand more were wounded, the people responsible for providing this faulty information because of which all this mess is created are still running around free without any consequences whatsoever. This injustice and favoritism in the world is what causes the grievances in the third world and it is dangerous for the entire world. One other interesting fact is that in 2001 the budget allocated for US intelligence agencies was 30 billion dollars, now it is up to 40 billion dollars.
According to famous Daily New Yorker reporter Samuel Hirsch, his sources inside Pentagon tells him that the Iranian Nuclear program sites are being monitored by un-manned spy planes and thru modern electronic snooping devices they are able to keep an eye on the progress of the nuclear aspirations of Iran.
Americans are also training a unit that can quickly achieve whatever the task on hand might be and return back to friendly borders.
Israel also attacked the nuclear program of Iraq in 1982 through unmanned planes. If they are able to monitor Iran’s nuclear assets, can they not do the same for Pakistan’s?
We should be mindful of the fact that India and Israel are getting ever closer to each other, and America’s next target could be Iran, all these developments can not be good for the region or for Pakistan’s interest.
It’s the responsibility of the government to address the grievances of Balochistan with all the means available, otherwise our enemies will exploit these volatile scenarios against us.
Our enemies are well aware that Balochistan is full of natural resources and it supposedly has more oil than Saudi Arabia. We have to put all our differences aside and come together as one nation. Our future and our safety lies in our solidarity as one nation.
Both sides have to accept the fact that Balochistan is part of Pakistan and the resources within Balochistan belong to Balochis first but they should be utilized for the betterment of the entire country.
In the past the resources of Balochistan were misused and the compensation that Balochistan received was not what it should have been. We should be mindful of that and compensate them for their losses.
President Bush recently said in a televised interview that after taking the oath for the 2nd term, he will take measures to demolish Iran’s nuclear capability. This statement alone should be enough to jolt us from hallucination.
Opinion expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author(s)
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