SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populous province – home to about 13 million of Pakistan’s estimated 182 million people – is also its least economically developed. “The province has the country’s lowest growth record and worst infrastructure, along with its highest rates of poverty, lowest social indicators for health and education and lowest levels of satisfaction with government service delivery”, according to a recent World Bank report. Rich in natural resources but poor in development, Balochistan’s economy is based on mining – mainly coal, copper and gold – basic fruit and livestock farming, and the extraction of natural gas. he Baloch have fought two major widespread guerilla campaigns against the Pakistani state, seeking independence between 1973-77 and again in an ongoing fight starting in 2005. Leaders say they are seeking an independent Baloch state in the province’s southeast – with the northern Pashtun-majority area free to decide its own fate. Each uprising so far has been crushed by the Pakistani army, with the government terming them foreign-funded conspiracies against the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The latest movement began in 2005, and escalated after the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a Baloch nationalist leader who had served as governor and chief minister of the province, but who had increasingly distanced himself from the central government and called for an independent Baloch state. Bugti’s death resulted in an escalation of the conflict with armed Baloch groups – notably the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) – stepping up attacks against security forces and non-Baloch citizens. In 2014, more than three hundred civilians and over 50 security forces personnel were killed.
In a recent statement “The prince of the defunct Kalat state and chief of the Baloch Rabita Ittefaq Tehreek, Prince Mohyuddin Baloch, has warned that if the government fails to settle by the end of 2015 the Balochistan issue according to the aspirations of people, it will soon lose all control over the situation” reported dawn.
Mohyuddin Balochis indeed very right in his analysis but state is helpless. The Baloch nationalists and the Pakistani military do not trust each other, nor are they willing to take a step back from their stated positions. Unless there are international guarantors, talks between the Baloch and the Pakistani state to bring peace and justice in Balochistan will not succeed. And if Government fails to satisfy the people of Balochistan it would definitely lose control over it.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
