Pakistan- the Balochistan Conundrum

by Tilak Devasher

  42. Aslam to Ikramullah, 29 October 1947, 2(20) S/47, SAFRON, (States and Frontier Regions Ministry), cited in Yaqoob Khan Bangash, A Princely Affair, p. 178.

  43. Yogeena Veena, ‘How Balochistan became a part of Pakistan—a historical perspective’.

  44. Abdul Majeed Abid, ‘The question of Kalat’.

  45. Mir Ahmed Yar Khan Baluch, Inside Baluchistan, p. 162.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Martin Axmann, Back to the Future, p. 299.

  7. Post-Accesssion Insurgencies

  1. Paul Titus and Nina Swidler, ‘Knights, Not Pawns: Ethno-Nationalism and Regional Dynamics in Post-Colonial Balochistan’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1, February 2000, pp. 47–69, http://www.jstor.org/stable/259535, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  2. Inayatullah Baloch, The Problem of Greater Baluchistan: A Study of Baluch Nationalism, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden Gmbh, 1987, pp. 195–96.

  3. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1981, p. 26.

  4. Ibid., p. 27.

  5. Ibid., p. 47.

  6. Ibid., p. 28.

  7. Taj Mohammad Breseeg, Baloch Nationalism: Its Origin and Development, Karachi: Royal Book Company, 2004, p. 301.

  8. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 28.

  9. Mir Ahmed Yar Khan Baluch, Inside Baluchistan: A Political Autobiography of His Highness Baiglar Baigi: Khan-E-Azam-XIII, Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1975, p. 189.

  10. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, ‘Seeds and soil’ The News on Sunday (TNS), 12 November 2017, http://tns.thenews.com.pk/seeds-soil/#.WgfgaYhx3IU, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  11. Parrari is the Baloch word used to describe a person(s) whose grievances cannot be solved through talks.

  12. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 30.

  13. Ibid., p. 33.

  14. Sabir Shah, ‘NAP was banned twice by Yahya and Bhutto’, The News, 3 May 2015, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/38435-nap-was-banned-twice-by-yahya-and-bhutto, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  15. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 35.

  16. Taj Mohammad Breseeg, Baloch Nationalism, pp. 324–25

  17. Paul Titus and Nina Swidler, ‘Knights, Not Pawns’, pp. 47–69.

  18. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 72.

  19. Paul Titus and Nina Swidler, ‘Knights, Not Pawns’, p. 62.

  20. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 37.

  21. Ibid., p. 33.

  22. Ibid.

  23. The Hyderabad Conspiracy Case was the name given to the trial of opposition politicians of the National Awami Party in Hyderabad Jail on the charges of treason that was instituted by Z.A. Bhutto after he dismissed the government in Balochistan.

  24. Roedad Khan, Pakistan: A Dream Gone Sour, Karachi: OUP, 1997, p. 86.

  25. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 4.

  26. Ibid.

  27. People’s Front, Vol. 2, No. 67, London, 1975, p. 4, cited in Taj Mohammad Breseeg, Baloch Nationalism, pp. 340–41.

  28. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 71.

  29. Naseer Dashti, The Baloch Conflict with Iran and Pakistan, Bloomington: Trafford Publishing, 2007, pp. 161–62.

  30. Ibid., pp. 165–66.

  31. Urmila Phadnis and Rajat Ganguley, Ethnicity and Nation Building in South Asia, New Delhi: Sage, 1989, p. 189, cited in Rahul Mukand, ‘Ethnicity and Nationalism in Balochistan’, Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU), Brief Number 34, Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, UK, 24 May 2008.

  32. For a succinct account of political developments during the 1980s–1990s, see Nasir Dashti, The Baloch Conflict with Iran and Pakistan, pp.169–98.

  III: THE ROOTS OF ALIENATION

  8. Political and Administrative Marginalization

  1. Manzoor Ahmed and Akhtar Baloch, ‘Political Economy of Balochistan, Pakistan: A Critical Review’, European Scientific Journal, May 2015, Vol. 11, No. 14.

  2. Malik Siraj Akbar, ‘Why Pakistan Is Embarrassed to Talk About Balochistan’, Huffington Post, 13 March, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malik-siraj-akbar/why-pakistan-is-embarrass_b_4937159.html, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  3. Mozaffar Shaheen, ‘The Politics of Cabinet Formation in Pakistan: A Study of Recruitment to the Central Cabinets. 1947–1977’, Ph.D. dissertation, Miami University, Ohio, 1980, cited in Urmila Phadnis, ‘Ethnic Movements in Pakistan’, in Pandav Nayak (ed.), Pakistan Society & Politics, South Asia Studies Centre, University of Jaipur, 1984, p. 193.

  4. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice: Empirical Insights from Balochistan, Karachi: OUP, 2018, p. 127.

  5. Tahir Mehdi, ‘Obfuscating Balochistan’, op-ed in Dawn, 30 March 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1398427/obfuscating-balochistan, (accessed on 4 April 2018).

  6. Ibid.

  7. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow: Baloch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations, Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1981, p. 160.

  8. Urmila Phadnis ‘Ethnic Movements in Pakistan’, pp. 194–95.

  9. Mumtaz Alvi, ‘Balochistan schools abandon national anthem, Senate told’, The News, 30 April 2009, https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/pakistans-national-anthem-not-allowed-abandoned-in-balochistan.27576/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  10. Urmila Phadnis, ‘Ethnic Movements in Pakistan’, p. 193.

  11. Saleem Shahid, ‘How ghost employees plague Balochistan’s government departments’, Herald, 3 October 2017, https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153869, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  12. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, ‘Not the Brinjals’ Servant’, Daily Times, 13 September 2015, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/13-Sep-2015/not-the-brinjals-servant], (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  13. Irfan Ghauri, ‘Changing demographics fuel ethnic tensions-II’, The Express Tribune, 30 November 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/1000901/changing-demographics-fuel-ethnic-tensions-ii/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  14. ‘Nadra officials issued 90,000 cards to foreigners in Balochistan, reveals detained employees’, report in Daily Times, 7 May 2016, http://dailytimes.com.pk/balochistan/07-May-16/nadra-officials-issued-90000-cards-to-foreigners-in-balochistan-reveals-detained-employees, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  15. Sharif Khan, ‘CNICs of 45,000 Balochistan employees found fake’, The Nation, 21 May 2017 http://nation.com.pk/national/21-May-2017/cnics-of-45-000-balochistan-employees-found-fake, (accessed on 27 February 2018); Saleem Shahid, ‘How ghost employees plague Balochistan’s government departments’.

  16. Saleem Shahid, ‘How ghost employees plague Balochistan’s government departments’.

  17. ‘Most posts in Balochistan bureaucracy vacant’, Dawn, 27 October 2016, http://www.dawn.com/news/1292509/most-posts-in-balochistan-bureaucracy-vacant, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  18. Saleem Shahid, ‘Balochistan to fill 20,000 vacant posts in 90 days’, Dawn, 30 December 2016, http://www.dawn.com/news/1305306/balochistan-to-fill-20000-vacant-posts-in-90-days, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  19. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, pp. 97, 99 and 103.

  20. Saleem Shahid, ‘Balochistan PA slams “bias” over jobs’, Dawn, 21 September 2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1359070/balochistan-pa-slams-bias-over-jobs, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  21. Riazul Haq, ‘3,431 posts for Balochistan vacant in different ministries’, The Express Tribune, 15 October 2017, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1531749/3431-posts-balochistan-vacant-different-ministries/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  22. ‘SC drivers earning more than Balochistan doctors: CJP’, The Nation, 11 April 2018, https://nation.com.pk/11-Apr-2018/sc-drivers-earning-more-than-balochistan-doctors-cjp, (accessed on 15 April 2018).

  23. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 22.

  24. Stephen Cohen, ‘Security Decision-Making in Paki
stan’, Report prepared for the office of External research, Department of State, September 1980, p 40, cited in Urmila Phadnis, ‘Ethnic Movements in Pakistan’, p. 193.

  25. Asaf Hussain, ‘Elite Politics in an Ideological State: The Case of Pakistan’, Kent 1979, p. 129, Table 14, cited in Urmila Phadnis, ibid., p. 193.

  26. K.B. Sayeed, ‘Pathan Regionalism’, The South Asia quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 4, Autumn 1964, Table 14. Even later, there were hardly any Baloch in the armed forces ranks. See Urmila Phadnis, ibid.

  27. Tariq Ali, Can Pakistan Survive? Bungay, Suffolk: Penguin Books, 1983, p. 117.

  28. ‘Growing regional disparity in incomes’, Dawn, 14 February 2005, https://www.dawn.com/news/382393, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  29. Hasan Askari Rizvi, The Military and Politics in Pakistan 1947–86, Lahore: Progressive Publishers, 1986, p. 242.

  30. Mohammad Zafar, ‘COAS calls for harnessing Balochistan’s human resource’, The Express Tribune, 8 December 2017, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1578643/1-army-chief-says-believes-democracy-selfless-service/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  31. Monthly Balochi Labzan, Hub (Balochistan), September 1997, p. 6, cited in Taj Mohammad Breseeg, Baloch Nationalism: Its Origin and Development, Karachi: Royal Book Company, 2004, p. 118.

  32. Dawn, 14 January 2006, cited in Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Conflict in Balochistan, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission’, August 2006, p. 42, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/20.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  33. Shahzada Zulfiqar, ‘Land-Mine’, Newsline, August 2004, p. 58.

  34. HRCP Report 2006, p. 41.

  35. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Human Rights in Balochistan and Balochistan’s Rights’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, October 2003, p. 57, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/20.pd, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  36. Manzoor Ahmed and Akhtar Baloch, ‘Political Economy of Balochistan.

  37. ‘35pc children out of schools in Balochistan: Minister’, The Nation, 2 March 2017, http://nation.com.pk/newspaper-picks/02-Mar-2017/35pc-children-out-of-schools-in-balochistan-minister, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  38. Monis Ali, ‘The education crisis in Balochistan’, Daily Times, 27 October 2016, http://dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/27-Oct-16/the-education-crisis-in-balochistan, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  39. Syed Fazl-e-Haider, ‘Education in Balochistan fails to keep pace’, Pakistan and Gulf Economist, 31 July 2017, http://www.pakistaneconomist.com/2017/07/31/education-in-balochistan-fails-to-keep-pace/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  40. Mohammad Zafar, ‘75 per cent Girls Out Of School In Balochistan’, The Express Tribune, 4 July 2016, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1135714/provincial-govt-challenge-75-per-cent-girls-school-balochistan/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  41. Ibid.

  42. Alif Ailaan, ‘The State of Education in Balochistan’, https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/alifailaan/pages/496/attachments/original/1473163108/, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  43. Mohammad Zafar, ‘No record of 15,000 teachers, 900 ghost schools in Balochistan: Minister’, The Express Tribune, 21 May 2016, http://tribune.com.pk/story/1107409/no-record-15000-teachers-900-ghost-schools-balochistan-minister/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  44. Government of Balochistan, Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013–2017, http://aserpakistan.org/document/learning_resources/2014/Sector_Plans/Balochistan%20Sector%20Plan%202013-2017.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  45. Adnan Aamir, ‘Balochistan is being cheated out of its share by HEC’, The Nation, 8 January 2016, http://nation.com.pk/blogs/08-Jan-2016/balochistan-is-being-cheated-out-of-its-share-by-hec/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  46. Shaukat Ali Mazari, ‘Wisdom at Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’, Daily Times, 20 March 2019, https://dailytimes.com.pk/367261/wisdom-at-higher-education-commission-of-pakistan/, (accessed 21 March 2019).

  47. Adnan Aamir, ‘Balochistan is being cheated out of its share by HEC’.

  48. Hussain Nadim, ‘Balochistan Matters’, The Express Tribune, 13 March 2016, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1065052/balochistan-matters/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  49. Mary Anne Weaver, Pakistan in the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, p. 105.

  50. ‘A word of caution’, editorial in Daily Times, 25 November 2015, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/25-Nov-2015/a-word-of-caution, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  51. Zohra Yusuf, ‘Trigger-happy in Balochistan’, The Express Tribune, 9 June 2011, http://tribune.com.pk/story/184794/trigger-happy-in-balochistan/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  52. Kill-and-dump refers to the gruesome practice of the security forces abducting Baloch youth, killing the individuals with extreme violence and then dumping their bodies.

  53. Mama Qadeer, whose real name is Abdul Qadeer Reki, set up an organization of family members of abducted Baloch activists called the Voice of the Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP). Their objective is to collect data of all abducted, missing and extra-judicially killed Baloch persons.

  54. Hashim bin Rashid, ‘Why Punjab doesn’t talk about Balochistan’, The Friday Times, 17 April 2015, http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/why-punjab-doesnt-talk-about-balochistan/#sthash.scfDSWvS.dpuf, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  55. Hussain Nadim, ‘Balochistan Matters’.

  56. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Conflict in Balochistan’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, August 2006, p. 59, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/20.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  57. HRCP Report, 2009, pp. 5 and 10.

  58. ‘Publisher apologises for “offensive” content in sociology textbook’, Dawn, 14 March 2016, http://www.dawn.com/news/1245561/publisher-apologises-for-offensive-content-in-sociology-textbook], (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  59. Zaigham Khan, ‘Insult the Baloch’, The News, 21 March 2016, http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/106819-Insult-the-Baloch, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  60. International Crisis Group (ICG), telephone interview, Islamabad, August 2007, ‘Pakistan: The Forgotten Conflict in Balochistan’, Brussels, 22 October 2007, p. 9, https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/pakistan/pakistan-forgotten-conflict-balochistan, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  61. ICG Report 2007, p. 9.

  62. Zoya Anwer, ‘Balochistan has no say in national policy making’, The News, 12 February 2018, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/279759-balochistan-has-no-say-in-national-policy-making, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  63. Saleem Shahid, ‘Census results hurting Baloch interests won’t be accepted, warns NP’, Dawn, 24 April 2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1328842/census-results-hurting-baloch-interests-wont-be-accepted-warns-np, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  64. Shezad Baloch, ‘Problems with census in Balochistan’, The Express Tribune, 31 March 2017 https://tribune.com.pk/story/1370062/problems-census-balochistan/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  65. Mubarak Zeb Khan, ‘Number of Balochi-speaking people in Balochistan falls’, Dawn, 11 September 2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1356899/number-of-balochi-speaking-people-in-balochistan-falls, (accessed 27 February 2018).

  9. Economic Exploitation

  1. General Money’s memorandum (unpublished), cited in Inayatullah Baloch, The Problem of Greater Baluchistan: A Study of Baluch Nationalism, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden Gmbh, 1987, p. 25.

  2. Inayatullah Baloch, The Problem of Greater Baluchistan: A Study of Baluch Nationalism, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden Gmbh, 1987, pp. 25–27.

  3. Maneck B. Pathawalla, The Problem of Baluchistan, pp. 3–4, cited in Inayatullah Baloch, ibid., p. 27.

  4. World Bank, ‘Pakistan–Balochistan Economic Report: From Periphery to Core’, Report No. 40345, May 2008, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/8082, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  5. Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2015-16,
p. 8, www.kcci.com.pk/Rnd/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/White-Paper-2015-16-2.pdf, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  6. Ibid.; Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2016-17, http://www.balochistan.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_docman&gid=1474&Item id=677; Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2017-18, http://www.balochistan.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_docman&gid=1680&Itemid=677, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  7. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry For Justice: Empirical Insights From Balochistan, Karachi: OUP, 2018, p. 21.

  8. Ibid., p. 23.

  9. Ibid., p. 49.

  10. Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2017-18, pp. 8–9.

  11. Ibid., p. 11.

  12. Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1981, p. 8.

  13. Abdul Wahab, ‘A Province in Peril’, Newsline, June 2009, http://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/the-final-showdown/, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  14. Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2017–18, p. 12.

  15. Abdul Wahab, ‘A Province in Peril’.

  16. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, p. 43.

  17. Abdul Wahab, ‘A Province in Peril’.

  18. ‘Rs.100 Billion for Balochistan road network, says Musharraf’, Daily Times, 4 April 2005, cited in International Crisis Group, Pakistan (ICG), ‘The Worsening Conflict in Balochistan’, Asia Report No. 119, 14 September 2006, p. 18, https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/119-pakistan-the-worsening-conflict-in-balochistan.pdf, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  19. Ibid., p.18.

  20. World Bank Group, Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2015-19, ‘Balochistan Consultations’, Quetta, 23–24 September 2013, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/520931468086941207/Balochistan-consultations-report-World-Bank-Group-WBG-Country-Partnership-Strategy-CPS-2015-19, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  21. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, p. 1.