Pakistan: The Balochistan Conundrum

Title: Pakistan: The Balochistan Conundrum

Author: Tilak Devasher

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2019 (First)

ISBN: 9789353570705

Pages: 358

Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan, rich in minerals and natural gas. By area, it constitutes almost half of Pakistan's landmass, but it is so scarcely populated that they form only six per cent of the nation’s headcount. What marks Balochistan out from the other provinces is the strong and recurring current of rebellion against the federal government. Balochis assert that they have been amalgamated to Pakistan forcefully, against their will, and allege that the Centre is interested only in exploiting the natural resources of the province. Several rounds of violent struggles were staged by the Baloch people against the Pakistani state that is controlled by the army. The military confuses the armed struggle as a law and order issue rather than as a political protest. Consequently, the Baloch people are subjected to brutal repression of the worst kind, with no avenues open for an amicable settlement. The Pakistani state is also worried about the prospect of Balochistan becoming independent, like what Bangladesh did in 1971. The army wants to avoid such an outcome at any cost, as they clearly know that their nation, founded on the glue of religion, would crumble to dust if one more province is to cede from the union. The ongoing repression in Balochistan is proving to be a stumbling block for commissioning of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) funded by China in its ambitious scheme of expanding trade and commerce in Asia. This book examines the issues related to Baloch integration to Pakistan and what it holds in future for the nation. Tilak Devasher took to writing after he retired as special secretary to the government of India in 2014. He is the author of two widely acclaimed books on Pakistan. During his professional career, he specialized in security issues pertaining to India’s neighbourhood. He is currently a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India.

Devasher begins by providing a good background of Balochistan’s accession to Pakistan. Muslim League had no significant presence in the province and no Baloch had attended the 1940 Lahore Declaration of the party that unequivocally demanded a separate homeland for Indian Muslims on the guiding principle that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations cohabiting inside the frontiers of India. Muslim majority provinces were lukewarm to the idea at first. The princely state of Kalat, which formed the bulk of present-day Balochistan declared independence in August 1947 opting not to join either India or Pakistan. As a consequence, the spectre of communal riots connected to Partition didn't touch the province. Under the constitution promulgated by the Khan in 1947, five Hindus were elected to the 52-member lower house of Dar ul-Awan. Kalat legally enjoyed an independent status similar to Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. It also didn't join the Chamber of Princes formed in Delhi by the rulers of Indian princely states under the British power. Jinnah’s patience ran out by March next year and on 27 March 1948, the Pakistan army invaded and annexed Kalat. Even in the neighbouring British Balochistan, only eight out of the forty-three members of the Shahi Jirga had supported accession to Pakistan. The forced occupation of Balochistan thus ended the Baloch ownership of their homeland and turned them into a marginal ethno-linguistic minority of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s suppression of the Baloch psyche is multi-pronged – political, cultural and physical. This book analyses each in good detail. Pakistan was always dominated and controlled by Punjab. Devasher claims that it is indeed a Punjabi empire subjugating other nationalities. In 1955, Balochistan was merged to the ‘One Unit’ structure of West Pakistan. This took away whatever little autonomy it enjoyed till then. This was a clever Punjabi attempt to combine the ethnically diverse provinces of West Pakistan into one administrative entity to offset East Pakistan’s rising influence, which was ethnically homogeneous and numerically larger. Convinced of the futility of integration, the provinces were again separated in 1970. The step-motherly attitude extended to Baloch language and culture is shocking and puts any civilized country to shame. Pakistan has not allowed Balochi to be the language of instruction at the primary level in schools. As claimed in the book, it is taught only at the Master’s level at Balochistan University.

The author points out the reasons for alienation of the province in sufficient detail. Balochistan is underrepresented in the political, bureaucratic and at the military level. The average constituency size in Punjab is 1,388 sq. km while it is 24,799 sq. km in Balochistan. Even after adjusting for the sparse distribution of population, this skewed ratio is glaring. In the Bhutto period, out of the 40,000 civil servants, only 2,000 were Baloch and most of them were in the lower rungs. The army is the most powerful institution in Pakistan. All others stay in power only as long as the army wills them to do so. The absolute power of the army can be seen in its infamously orchestrated shooting down of Mir Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto, the brother of the then reigning Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1996. After putting the blame of the police encounter on the sister, she was summarily dismissed from office a month later. The army is seventy per cent Punjabi and fifteen per cent Pashtun. There are only a few hundred Baloch in the entire Pakistan army. Adding insult to injury is the famous Baloch Regiment that has no Baloch in its rolls. The Baloch rose up in a series of insurgencies in the years 1948, 1958, 1962, 1973-77 and the latest one which began in the early-2000s which is still raging. The army is ruthless in crushing political leaders. It had bulldozed 13,000 acres of almond plantations owned by Sher Mohammed Marri for voicing against the army’s script.

There are people in Pakistan who compare the province of Kashmir in India that is claimed to be undergoing the same level of repression as in Balochistan. The fallacy of this argument is clear from the facts given in the book. Kashmir is not a natural resource-rich state and India has no material advantage in keeping them within its fold, but Balochistan is different. It is a surplus producer of electricity. The power produced there is tapped for use in other provinces. Moreover, poor provincial grid design ends up in load shedding of up to twelve hours’ duration in regions other than Quetta. The Gwadar port is being developed as a maritime outlet for products flowing from Western China, but operations are already handed over to China for forty years. The Baloch is denied any revenue till 2048. Due to this discrepancy, many in Balochistan believe the CPEC to be in fact the China Punjab Economic Corridor. The province provides practically all the oil and natural gas produced in Pakistan.

‘Enforced disappearance’ is a tactic used by the Pakistan army to silence dissenting Balochis. The author cites numerous instances and the military logic behind this cruel policy. Enforced disappearance, or extra-judicial abduction, is the clandestine arrest of activists whose whereabouts would be hidden even from judicial scrutiny. They will invariably be mercilessly tortured and if they die in the process, the mutilated bodies would be unceremoniously dumped in the open. This has turned the province into a boiling cauldron of ethnic, sectarian, secessionist and militant violence. The number of such disappearances runs into several thousands while the security agencies are answerable only to the army or ISI chief.

The true spirit of the Baloch freedom struggle is reflected in the book’s narrative. The essence of the national struggle is the assertion that the Baloch have their separate cultural, social and historical identity which is markedly different from the fundamentalist ideology of the religious-based state of Pakistan. The federal government is injecting jihadism in the province to strengthen the religious bond that binds them together. The weakest link in the program of achieving liberty is the low demographic pattern in the state. The Baloch are spread around the province in 22,000 settlements that range from the capital city of Quetta to small hamlets having less than 500 houses. To add to the complexity, the Baloch society is structured around dominant tribes who continue to harbour animosity against other tribes even in the face of external aggression. Earlier, insurrections were led by tribal leaders in their strongholds. In the latest face of the struggle, this is taken over by educated middle class youth along nationalist lines.

This book makes an overt comparison of Balochistan with Bangladesh in 1971 and discusses the probability of its eventual success in its desperate bid to break free from Pakistan. Bengalis were relatively homogeneous, had a significant middle class, a well-established cultural and literary life, a standardized language, a broad base of nationalist activists and a history of mass politicisation that dated back to the struggle against the British Raj. On the other hand, Baloch nationalist movement was built on uncertain social and cultural foundations of a fragmented tribal society that had only a minuscule middle class, widespread illiteracy, underdeveloped literature, narrow base of nationalist activists and no real history of mass participation in the political process. Besides, India does not openly back them and Iran and Afghanistan are indifferent to the idea of a free Balochistan apprehensive of the loyalty of Baloch areas inside their national boundaries. Only a united effort by the people of the province, backed by the financial muscle of its diaspora stands any chance of success.

The book is written based on the material available only from secondary sources and periodicals. A lot of facts, figures and tables are included. Arguments based on numerical ratios appear to be nit-picking. It is doubtful whether the author has ever visited Balochistan before writing such an ‘authentic’ work. It includes no bibliography. Repetition of ideas in some places taxes the readers’ interest.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star