Mishandling of the situation in Balochistan for the last many decades has made it more complex and critical. It needs well-coordinated national efforts to clean the mess of the last many years. The government should lead from the front; however, the problem with the current governments and legislative assemblies at the federal and provincial levels is that they do not fulfill some basic requirement of legitimacy. This hampers the government’s ability to address complex and sensitive issues that prevail in Balochistan.
Application of kinetic force is not what we need, instead Balochistan needs healing from the injuries that are inflicted on us by our friends and foes, from within and without.
Historically, through the courtesy of the Khan of Kalat, Balochistan decided to go with Pakistan after its independence from the British rule. This was according to the agreed formula for independence, in which former princely states were given a choice to join either India or Pakistan. It is worth mentioning here that India violated the agreed plan by annexing Hyderabad and Junagarh by force and the violation of annexing Kashmir resulted in continuous bloodshed in the valley even after seven decades. Everything in the historical perspective of Balochistan is clear and without any controversy. Be it with regards to historical arrangements with the Kingdom of Afghanistan, the independence from British rule and later, annexation of the coastal region including Gwadar through a state to state deal between Pakistan and the Sultanate of Oman. The issues of Balochistan are rather related to the rights of people living there, the Baloch, the Pashtuns, the Hazaras, the minorities and the people from other parts of Pakistan living there. All groups are suffering for one reason or another.
The migrants from other provinces and those migrated from India have played an important role in the development of Balochistan from the very earliest days after independence. People of Balochistan regret that a big number of migrants had to leave the province in the 70s due to a controversy between the federal and provincial governments; this exodus severely affected the educational system and the province fell behind in producing a more skilled workforce for quite some time. Today as well, people from other provinces are performing important services both as skilled and unskilled labor; their safety and well being must be ensured not only for reasons of humanity and justice but for the well being and progress of the province. Balochistan should even discuss and introduce schemes for highly educated and skilled professionals from other parts of the country and international locations to serve in the province, to train and bring the young workforce up to speed of international standards.
Let us take a break from history and focus on the future with a solution-oriented approach for the way forward. Let’s highlight some of the key issues and their possible long-term solutions to make Balochistan a peaceful place, which will help in tapping into the great potential that nature has bestowed on it, and we need to understand that it is not only the natural resource potential that is important; it is the human resource that should be more important for any sustainable peace and prosperity in Balochistan and Pakistan as a whole. The GenZ and even younger generations in Balochistan should see a bright future for themselves - the nation needs to instill confidence in them, so no one will ever look back towards the mountains.
People of Balochistan must be relieved from the slavery of Sardari Nizam. In this Nizam, it is difficult for a common person to run for election against some of the tribal chiefs and their family members; there are exceptions to this rule though. However, there is hardly any exception to the rule of getting approval from the real rulers of Balochistan and reportedly money has become a factor in this selection process. The jobs and educational opportunities are also for the influential tribal elite, by the virtue of one’s links in civil administration or connections with the military authorities. The same is true for business and it works for winning contracts, even illegal businesses such as smuggling, thrives based on such connections and mutual benefits.
The situation explained above with respect to merit defines the main reason for the failure of public and private sector projects and unsuccessful implementation of schemes. Therefore, whatever is available in the form of grants, NFC awards and so forth is mostly wasted and we end up with failures in schemes, such as 100 Dams Project, the dams constructed under which did not survive the first floods and were destroyed within a few years. Provincial government is equally responsible to come up with corrective measures. Otherwise we will continue to push our frustrated youth to dangerous avenues.
A fair and competitive environment for our youth in Balochistan, for education, work and business could alone solve a large number of issues and would elevate the disenchantment of the high potential youth of the province. Presently, the youth of Balochistan is dissatisfied from the system and as such, it becomes the prime and easy target of wrongful propaganda supported by our neighbors to produce separatist mindset but also due to some legitimate wrongdoing of our own. We should focus on our own faults before we look outside.
Some specific examples may help us understand the issue of injustice to the common folk of Balochistan. Gwadar for instance, is the main hub for the grand CPEC project that has brought the attention of the world, but unfortunately, the local population have not gotten the attention of our own authorities. The poor fishermen keep complaining about the misuse of their traditional fishing waters by fishing trawlers using illegal fine size nets to leave nothing for the local fishermen and destroying the natural breeding system for the fish. The same area around the coastal belt depends on supplies from across the border from Iran;locals are barred from moving these essential goods, while fuel smugglers under the watchful eyes of security agencies freely operate. Chaman border tells us the same story.
The province lags behind in development. For instance, CPEC should have brought a good bit of investment to Balochistan, for its roads’ network, its industry, local skill development and so forth. We fail to understand why China would not like such development to happen in Balochistan and prioritize projects elsewhere in Pakistan, which are sometimes not directly related to the economic corridor, why they would not like to give legitimate number of scholarships to the students from Balochistan. Our understanding is that it is not China, it is our own system that has flaws,;we could not bring forth projects for Balochistan to propose to the CPEC Coordination Committee, the first forum where projects are selected and approved jointly by Pak-China techno-commercial experts. We could not even organize to send youth from Balochistan on CPEC scholarships; in this background, the development schemes for Balochistan are either not taking off or they are behind schedule. Establishment of industrial states is just one example, which if prioritized like other schemes around the country could have generated economic activity and create jobs in Balochistan.
The constitutional rights of Balochistan must be honored and the legitimate struggle for these rights must not be suppressed with force, it will only encourage people to join the ranks of miscreants in their illegitimate activities. Further, the collective punishment formula and collateral damage, as it is termed, will not bring desired results whatsoever. The role and engagement protocol of security forces, particularly FC, must be defined based on civilized norms. Extra judicial disappearances and killings will only aggravate the situation. Training programs for men from the security forces like FC must be made mandatory, to introduce them to the cultural norms and sensitivities.
Another constitutional right of the province is related to the supply of natural gas to the households and industry, which is very small to start with. This right is guaranteed under Article 158 of the Constitution. It is an old complaint of the people of Balochistan that despite the discovery of gas in Sui, Balochistan in the 1950s, the province has not benefited from this, while it has been supplied through pipelines to distant parts of the country, where people enjoy this facility for domestic use and the industry thrived through this cheap energy source for long. Balochistan has been deprived of this resource, based on the argument that the population is scattered in small centers and pipeline gas does not make commercial sense. Well, this argument is no longer valid; technology has a solution now in the shape of virtual pipelines, which is being used all around the world, where gas is trucked in the form of LNG to distant places and with commercial sense. Such arrangements should be made for cities of Balochistan, which will also encourage industrial development. Areas with harsh weather conditions such as Zhob, Ziarat, and Kalat need gas for lifeline users and for the sake of the environment, people in such areas are left with no other choice but to cut the extremely valuable forest to survive the harsh winters.
Jamaat e Islami is committed to bring about peace and prosperity to Balochistan, bringing the province up to pace with other provinces in progress and development. In this context, we are organizing a long March from Quetta to Islamabad on 25 July 2025. We are in contact with national and provincial leadership to agree to a roadmap for bringing peace to the province. We will continue our efforts for engaging all stakeholders for the purpose and take practical steps in coordination with our affiliate organizations, through some pilot projects, to show the way for governmental and non-governmental agencies through examples of some real ground work. One of such orogram is the Bano Qabil program that we plan to expand in Balochistan, to produce youth with IT skills for better jobs and earning opportunities.
“And if only the people of the cities had believed and feared Allah, We would have opened upon them blessings from the heavens and the earth.” (Surah Al-A'raf-96)
Hafiz Naeem ur RahmanDisclaimer: TFA does not subscribe to the writer's views and is being published for public debate.
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