Balochistan’s importance to Pakistan

The province is in turmoil and the people are in difficulties. The leaders of the last government were responsible for the murder of Nawab Bugti. He was always apprehensive of the way his death would take place and if there was any doubt that was put to rest by the conversation that I had with some one who had worked for and with him when he was Governor.
He asked the colleague as to whether the walls of his house could stop the artillery fire. The colleague was rightly perturbed for the reasons were simple. The Army did have more than nay civilian could understand. That prophecy was to come true within a couple of years.
What have these inconsistent actions done to the people of this country and to the Baluchis in particular? The answers have led to weakening of credibility of the successive federal governments. This is a tragedy as the present government is trying hard to get the correct measures going so that on the one hand the people of Pakistan understand the particular issue that is now eating the people of Pakistan and the options that the people of Baluchistan are living with this. As I see the situation these matters are made far worse by the functionaries of he government who are using all kinds of innuendos and a campaign of vilification of the local Baluchis and Pathans. The order is simple. They would try and keep the seniors out of coming to the province for work. At the same time they give themselves no leverage for work by using the system in such a manner that they become the precursor of determining and adding sinister aspects that enable them o rationalize lack of work. This is portrayed by such statements as the local conditions are bad and therefore one cannot go to the site. Remain desk bound and the vocational failings would follow. I had seen this in former East Pakistan and the dire consequences of personal benefits overcome public interest. As it is identities are based on 1. Ethnic element that is based on a legacy that has to be historic and 2. A developmental one that stems from the concept of modernity and in an effort to join the ranks of the reasonably developed and ultimately well developed. This essentially means that social forces generated must have centripetal strengths rather that centrifugal ones and should thus be forcing the social systems, despite any aspect that is otherwise, to take charge.
The special social aspects of Baluchistan are such that special dispensations in a number of policy matters have to be affected. Instead policy of aggressive designs were carried out and justified. It is possible to justify any aspect of life and it is also possible to find a coterie of people from the area so aggrieved to carry out parochially and to justify the whims of the powerful forces. The aspect that I have always cherished and have advocated is that nothing can be held by force and eventually the fate of any social conflict is in allowing the governance to those that believe in what is going in the province or oppressed area and how best to handle it so that the federation is preserved. Social macro misdemeanors have a nasty way of moving by geometric progression. They balloon out of context and then it is not a matter as to who is right or wrong but the manner in which these social forces gather momentum.
The development effort than has to be geared towards the betterment of the economic well being of ever person in he oppressed area and it cannot be, by definition, policies for the few and against the many. Governments in the past have followed all kinds of policies and have tried to black mail on the one hand and bribe them on the other. Such policies essentially are to be based on equity, efficiency and efficacy in which social justice and fair play have a large role. The ordinary citizens may seem helpless but they understand what is going on around them and have a stance on the policies although they may not seem to influence these policies.
The social understanding of centuries of colonialism can at best be removed by such policies as require a different kind of approach. Conveniences of other areas already well served by the federation may be excluded from the list of ‘investment’ in such areas. Instead we have seen social policies responsible for disaggregating the already social fabric. Since industry would not be possible in the short term the burden must fall on agriculture. There is much to do and Baluchistan is my favorite for the last two decades or even more as one sees potential in the area and the husbanding of resources in a different manner. Agriculture can be put on its head and in an unconventional manner much can be done. Cohesiveness and otherwise social policies are dependent on intangibles and the censorship system of the leaders that are in position democratically and one has therefore no consort with despicably indecent tyrants that come in to our lives every now and then.
The tendency has been to base our academic work on some defunct western logician irrespective of understanding the local cultural concept. Socially, culturally and an interpretation of these is based on a premise that is not desirable. Thus if I were to quote Rousseau and Locke etc what reasonable person would accept that kind of analysis for the social aspect of tribal areas and the culturally nurtured argument that comes up every now and then and not resolved. The enculturation [weaker culture imbibing the better aspects of another culture] is an important element in the development of attitudes and values that eventually must impact on the political weaknesses of a system. A tyrannical system is not answerable to any one and therefore forces policies on the body politic that on the face of it would leave the governance factors much worse than what these were than what they acquired by assuming power illegitimately.
Governance is a much abused word and has acquired sinister meaning thereby generating and furthering the fact generically of something not happening correctly. This has allowed Pakistan to be called a number of times by the international agencies for reasons that may or may not be correct. The myths attached to these systems by the international agencies themselves are questionable.
So the list of such actions may be seen in the context of what is required to be done? Development policies can improve the legacies of the past. The colonial system used money power and this is clear from the work of Sandhurst and other white men that governed on behalf of their countries. They may have seemed to be socially benign but they were not as the long term context indicates. Agriculture has to be at the forefront and yet the people’s in-charge in the province are the one’s that seem to be the biggest culprits.
Given to senseless intrigues and an ability not to work but to back bite and bad mouthing everyone and that in it self does two things: 1. Takes care of the ‘opponent’ and thus seemingly places them lower in the social and work order. 2. Places the intriguer in a psychological moment superior to the person spoken against and rationalizes the lack of work done. The best of them do it and the worst are despicably low. The time, in short is, to get going in an equitable manner and to deliver the goods so sought. Leadership change in agriculture in the short term may be a way out. We will see how it emerges. The world is ours to make or break. Dr Zafar Altaf