August 24, 2009

Is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services more politically
sensitive than generally assumed?

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration's online change of address form (AR-11)
offers 'Baluchistan (Pakistan)' as a 'country of citizenship'
choice--along with other autonomous, one-time autonomous, disputed or
independent entities. For ex., it lists 'Cook Islands (NZ),' described
by Wikipedia as 'a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free
association with New Zealand.'

The US immigration site's online registration form, however, does not
list 'Baluchistan (Pakistan)' as a choice--simply 'Pakistan.'
Nevertheless, it has one group (the Union of Patriotics for Sovereign
Pakistan--UPBSP) rattled. This 'newly formed network' has started a
'Containment of USA' campaign. Its website states that 'Some US
government departments are quietly preparing the ground for the
warlike act of recognizing Pakistan's Balochistan province as an
independent state by assigning a separate checklist to Balochistan
against the “Country of citizenship” column of Immigration Form for
non-US nationals.'

http://www.daily.pk/u-s-a- government-website-supports- terror-in-balochistan-9415/

To our knowledge, the U.S. government has shown no interest in recognizing Balochistan
as an independent state. I am curious, though, about how 'Baluchistan (Pakistan)' came to be
listed on the change of address form. Presumably 'Baluchistan' has been on the list for some
time as it uses the spelling Baluchistan vs. the more modern Balochistan, which I believe
was formally adopted by the Balochistan provincial government in 1990.