Pakistan

Baluchistan is area wise the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan. It is the smallest province in terms of the population. Ever since independence there has invariably been lot of hue and cry regarding the deprivation of the rights of the people of Baluchistan. All governments to date have been accepting the existence of this deprivation and announcing different packages and incentives to make up the deprivation. However, the hue and cry regarding the deprivation has continued to increase despite all these efforts. In the recent past, particularly, after the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and killing of a few more political leaders, this hue and cry has gathered a new momentum and now the voices of secession from Pakistan are on the increase.

People of Baluchistan feel that they are not getting the due share of development and their democratic rights of freedom of expression, equal opportunities etc are also not respected. The other sore point is about the royalty for the mineral resources like natural gas from Sui gas fields, copper from Saindak, marble etc. In the last few years there have been a large number of people from Baluchistan who, according to the political leadership, have gone missing as they have been picked up by the security agencies, namely, army. People of Baluchistan are against the involvement of the army and even the establishment of new cantonments. Gwadar port is yet another sore point where non Baluchis have purchased lot of land and are working in various projects which is going to change the demography of the area. Notwithstanding the poor standard of education, the people of Baluchistan want all public office vacancies to be filled by them and not from outside Baluchistan.

It is in this backdrop that the present government had promised to alleviate the sufferings of Baluchistan through a package. The said package has been placed before the national assembly. The Baluch leadership’s response has been twofold; the political leadership of Baluchistan was not taken into confidence while preparing the package and that the package falls well short of the demands of the people of Baluchistan. Yet another cry has been that the people of Baluchistan wanted these promises to be converted into deeds and going by the past precedence, they had all the reservations about the implementation of the package.

Even if the Baluchistan package presented in the National Assembly is well intentioned, it’s not being perceived as such. Wouldn't it have been better that all the elected and non elected political leadership was taken on board while preparing the package. If this was not possible, the least which could have been done was to present the package in the Provincial Assembly of Baluchistan prior to its approval by the National Assembly and the government.