By Amjad Hussain

With each passing day, the situation in Balochistan is getting bad to worse despite government’s lollypops being offered to Baloch people in the names of packages. The increasing determination of Baloch freedom fighters to get a sovereign piece of land with altogether control over its resources is getting strength day by day. Differences between the Establishment ruling the country and the Baloch nationalists date back from the very first day of emergence of Pakistan on the world map in 1947. Baloch nationalists describe the accession of the then state of Kalat to Pakistan as forcible and say the terms and conditions on which the state was made part of Pakistan were never honoured and observed by the Pakistani rulers which, thereby, caused a rift between the two. They also accuse the rulers of giving them a raw deal from the very beginning.

The non-judicious and prejudiced policies of the rulers towards Balochistan in general and Baloch nationality in particular with five military operations in the province got this rift plumped up which has now reached to such a point that some section of the Baloch nationality are now calling for independence. The killings of two eminent Baloch nationalist leaders – Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Nawabzada Balach Marri – exacerbated the situation in Balochistan which turned off all hopes for negotiation between the two parties and a faction of the Baloch nationalists openly started demanding an independent Balochistan. That particular faction identifying itself by various names including Baloch Liberation Army, Baloch Republican Army and Baloch National Front is now adamant to get the Baloch liberate from Pakistan. They say there is no further room for table talk with the rulers as they have always tricked them on pretext of false assurances and commitments instead of taking any concrete measure to address their grievances.

They are determined to get their independence at any cost while turning down all government offers of negotiations and rejecting the packages aimed at appeasing the Baloch nationalists like the one recently announced and named as Aghaz-e-Huqooq Balochistan. This group is now being led by Nawabzada Hairbeyar Marri, a son of eminent Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, and Mir Suleman Daud, the Khan of Kalat. The Khan had also announced earlier this year to mark August 11 as Balochistan’s Independence Day and urged the Baloch people to hoist independent Balochistan’s standards at their houses and public places to celebrate the day. The widening rift between the two parties led to a surge in attack on security personnel, killing of settlers, bomb blasts and sabotage acts across the province with lifting of Baloch political workers in large number and persecution of several Baloch nationalist leaders simultaneously. The government’s declaration of general amnesty to Baloch leaders, helping recovery and release of detained political workers and most recently announcement of Aghaz-e-Huqoor Balochistan package all fell flat on the Baloch freedom fighters as they are still determined to have a separate piece of land.

Whatever the situation in Balochistan has developed over the past sixty-two years, the blame is put on the Centre. The Baloch freedom fighters accuse the rulers of having been usurping their rights and resources for the last several decades. True, Islamabad is responsible for the sufferings, torments and deprivation of the Baloch people to a great extent, but the onus also falls on the Baloch leaders equally who remained in power in Balochistan after it was declared a province in 1970. It is an established fact that the Baloch governors and chief ministers – whether they accept or reject – have always sided with Islamabad in its policies towards Balochistan and the Baloch nationality just to secure their own personal interests.

Whenever they are in power, they never get tired to praise the Centre for what they call its generous policy and kind attitude towards Balochistan; but when they come out of power corridors they immediately starts lashing out the rulers for what they now call their harsh attitude and ignorable policies. Example of sitting chief minister of Balochistan, Nawab Aslam Raisani, is a glaring one to quote in this regard. Raisani is the same personality who attended the grand Baloch Jirgah (As the chief of Sarawan) in Kalat held in September 2006 for the first time in 126 years which announced in a declaration that a case would be filed in the International Court of Justice against what it termed violation of agreements signed by the State of Kalat, the British Crown and the government of Pakistan pertaining to sovereignty and rights of the Baloch people. The jirgah also described the ongoing military operation in Balochistan as state terrorism and called for an immediate halt to the operation and release of all arrested political workers.

The jirga condemned the assassination of Nawab Bugti and demanded an investigation into the cause of his death by the International Human Rights Commission to ascertain the factual position. It also rejected the mega development projects including the Gwadar uplift programme. But, after taking over the highest executive slot of the province, what happened to those announcements and declarations? Now the same Raisani is extolling the central government for what he calls its generosity and kindness towards the Baloch people. It is important to note that 85 Baloch tribal chiefs and about 300 elders attended this jirgah at Shahi Hall Kalat, a number of whom are now enjoying the government incentives and comforts having completely forgotten their pledge at the jirgah. There are so many other precedents which could be cited as examples in this connection.

Furthermore, a number of packages and incentives have also been announced for Balochistan since 1970 to pacify the Baloch militants, but what happened to that? Almost all the fund streaming into Balochistan have been embezzled and misappropriated by the sitting government and its ministers who, unfortunately, happened to be mostly Baloch. Now, if the Baloch chief executive of the province and ministers pocket the development funds instead of utilizing it for the welfare of Baloch masses, then, why to blame the Centre only for Baloch’s backwardness and poverty. Perhaps, it is the same fear which forced the Balochistan National Party Mengal’s acting president Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini to express his concern over fair utilization of the fund coming to the province under Aghaz-i-Huqooq Balochistan package and to assert that it would surely be embezzled by the provincial ministers. In fact, the problem lies with the unscrupulous disloyal Baloch leadership which has always tried to secure their own personal interests at the cost of Baloch deprivation.

Struggle of the Baloch freedom fighters for their deliverance from Islamabad can be justified in the backdrop of injustices and excesses inflicted to Baloch masses by the Establishment over the past 62 years, but, the Baloch masses should not overlook the fact that these injustices would not have happened to them if their leaders had been sincere to their cause and true well-wishers of their masses. Islamabad can not implement its policies and launch a project in Balochistan unless and until it has the support of the sitting government in the province. Baloch can easily achieve their goals of having full control over their land and its resources while remaining part of Pakistan the day they succeed to weed such selfish and self-interested leaders out of their ranks. They would not even need to fight a war against Islamabad as all things would turn in their favour just by a stroke of pen.