It has been a long time since we turned our faces away from the unrest in Balochistan. We do not understand the seriousness of the worsening condition that will cause a huge problem in the future for national cohesiveness.
The largest province, which is very rich in mineral resources and fossil fuels, is largely ignored by our policymakers. The land that has the potential to be used as a corridor and generate huge revenue is producing insurgency instead. The locals are becoming anti-state and have a very serious grudge towards the Punjab and security establishment for their misery.
I have personally faced many Baloch youngsters chanting anti-Pakistan slogans in Lahore who have come here to study in local universities. The hostile elements are instilling hatred in young minds and setting up an ideological arena in which all our ethnic communities will clash with each other. They are inculcating in the Balochs that it is their identity that is a bone of contention for the suffering they have been facing for decades. These are the Punjabis, particularly, who are responsible for their ordeal and consider the Balochs an inferior race. Equipping their minds with this self-designed idea for the sake of unrest is more dangerous than giving them the guns in their hands to fight for their rights.
A minor ideological spark can set off a chain of events that can change the course of history. Our memory is so weak that we forget the most gruesome events of the past as early as possible. We have witnessed the separation of Pakistan just because we ignored the ideological differences between East and West Pakistan. Who would have thought that a language problem could trigger the chain of events that would cause the fall of Dhaka?
It is proven by social science that ideological and intangible elements have more power than material culture. We did nothing to address Bengalis’ problems, and their non-material values gradually morphed into stronger emotions such as hatred for West Pakistan.
Our establishment has failed in eliminating the threat of Baloch nationalism despite conducting targeted and massive operations in the province. It has also failed to discredit these movements for alleged kidnappings of foreigners and security personnel. Of course, Pakistan rejects separatist aspirations just like every other state does. However, a detailed examination of so-called “Baloch nationalism” reveals that, although the province still had true separatist impulses in the early 2000s, the political parties that openly supported secession were in the minority.
The majority of activists—though not all—had come to terms with the notion that Balochistan’s destiny lay within the Pakistani federation. Within the confines of the federal constitution, they fought for increased autonomy as well as for the government to uphold the socioeconomic rights of the Baloch. Most components of the “nationalist” movement were radicalised as a result of the state’s repressive response.
Perhaps, Our responses are not well evaluated and conceived before giving them practical shape. Baloch nationalism has survived due to the ongoing economic and social disparities across the provinces, which have been made worse by military persecution and major human rights violations. These material causes have now turned into ideological causes. More people are now under the umbrella of Baloch nationalism and this number will persist to increase in the upcoming days.
The social and institutional fabric of Balochistan is facing systematic destruction, leaving behind only the province’s most radical elements. Over the years, the government’s repressive tactics in Balochistan changed. However, across the province, people have been abducted, killed, and their bodies abandoned but the perpetrators were not found.
Military governments in Pakistan have also attempted to eliminate ethnic identities by altering regional demographics and promoting Islamization, or the replacement of ethnic identities with a shared Muslim identity. In Balochistan, this phenomenon is not brand-new.
When Pakistan merged the Pashtun regions into Balochistan in 1971, they made their first move to isolate the Baloch within their province. Balochistan also became one of the two focus points of Zia-ul-Haq’s agenda towards the end of the 1970s after his coup (the other being the North-West Frontier Province, now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa). It has been an essential component of all centralization programmes ever since. Baloch nationalists viewed the Islamization process as a part of a wider plan to isolate people and make them more receptive to Islamabad’s policies, and this perception led them to reject it rather than the process’ ideological content.
A majority of the Baloch population wants greater autonomy for the province but does not demand independence. According to a July 2012 survey, only 37 percent of the Balochs favour independence, and a mere 12 percent of Balochistan’s Pashtuns favour that option. However, 67 percent of the total population supports greater provincial autonomy. These figures alone do not predetermine the future of Balochistan—the 37 percent of Balochs who favour independence indeed constitute a large plurality that could even grow in the future.
If this Baloch nationalism prevails and survives, it will be a grave threat to national solidarity. If we start to handle situations and design policies to counter emerging threats in a judicious way instead of applying violence to every situation, we will be able to maintain national solidarity.
It is the need of the hour to cope with the dwindling socio-economic downfall of Baloch society. They should be given equal rights and all the primary services we enjoy. If we do not take it as seriously as we do not do it in routine, then another explosion is ready to blow out. This ordeal will shape itself into hatred against Pakistan, and it will be a herculean task to control it then. Our policymakers should give up the policy of hostility and focus on development schemes in Balochistan. It will force the Baloch mind to think and see in the right direction.
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