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Nov 29, 2009
BITTER TRUTH
by Diagoh Murad
Email: diagoh@yahoo.com
The Global world is moving toward the future day by day and
every living thing on this world knows their rights & they
are free to choose what is best for them. The economical changes
of different countries, the rising of global warming, American
pressure towards the Central Asian region, But still with all
these problems of today’s world there are some nation
who are still living in the past. Their social condition is
not satisfactory, they lack behind today’s world in the
fields of Education, Medical Facilities & many more basic
needs which are used in the daily life of a human being. One
such nation is the Baloch Nation who for most of their struggling
life has been in the dark ages of mankind.
Baloch nation even though are owner of such a great land like
Balochistan which comprises with many mineral resources likewise
Gas, Copper, Gold, Coal, Silver, Oil, Uranium, and above all
biggest coastal belt, But still is a backward nation. According
to the World Bank ‘Balochistan Economic Report 2009’
“Balochistan is the largest province in
Pakistan with 44 percent of the country’s land area
but only 5 percent of the population. The province is comparatively
backward and economic development is needed to deal with
significant structural problems, both political and socio-economic”
“The ‘Balochistan Economic Report 2009’,
which took into account statistics from 1972-73 to 2005-06,
said the province’s economy expanded by 2.7 times in
Balochistan, 3.6 times in the NWFP and Sindh and four times
in Punjab. Overall, the size of the ‘economic pie’ rose
110 percent in the rest of the country, except Balochistan.”
“Balochistan ranked lowest on the ‘horizontal
axis’ in 1981-82 as it was the poorest province. It
also ranks lowest on the ‘vertical axis’ because
of a weak growth performance.”
Now the above paragraph may have shed some light over what
is depriving the Baloch nation to their demanding freedom for
themselves and why they are struggling with the means for their
independence. For the past 62 years Baloch nation faced genocide
after genocide, the increasing of poverty in their life and
worst than all the developing projects which brought disasters
whenever they were implemented on Baloch Nation. The new development
era for Baloch nation begin in the year when General Parvez
Musharraf was President of Pakistan.
In his presidency not only Baloch descended from the poverty
line but also suffered mass migration, Thousands of Baloch
people were displaced from their ancestral land in fear of
operation conducted by the orders of General Parvez Musharaf.
Many innocent Baloch youth were abducted and were tortured
to death as they were called “miscreants” by the
Pakistani army, Law was handed over in the hands of Pakistani
Spy Agencies ISI, MI as they were given free hand in Balochistan.
On one occasion General Parvez Musharraf in his speech pointed
fingers on three Sardars as the obstacle in the way of development
namely Nawab Khair Buksh Marri, Nawab Akbar Bugti & Sardar
Attaullah Mengal. Gwadar deep sea port was the first mega project
completed and many Baloch intellectual considered it to be
ethnic cleansing of Baloch nation because Baloch have studied
from their past mistake that building a deep sea port will
not end poverty but will attract other nation namely Punjabi,
Muhajirs & Pathan, which can clearly be seen that the land
in nearby Gwadar city is being sold out to such extent which
raises some points that the thought of the Baloch nation
is correct that Government doesn’t wont solution but
wants to turn Baloch nation in minority in their own land as
it has already done inside the capital city of Balochistan
Quetta which is populated mostly by the afghan refugees.
The question rises here are, How can a deep sea port be a
solution to the increasing poverty? Why the Government neglects
the fact that what are the basic things which are needed to
end the misery of Baloch nation? The fact to these questions
is the Government never admired the Baloch nation. The basic
needs like gas, drinking water, education institutions, electricity & medical
facilities were never produced for Baloch nation.
Gas which is being exploited since 1958 from the Sui Gas plant
located inside Dera Bugti is being supplied to every city and
region of Pakistan but many districts of Balochistan are waiting
for it. The Balochistan Economic Report 2009 by World Bank
writes these quotes for gas comprising inside Balochistan
“In 1994-95, Balochistan produces 355 billion cubic feet (BCF) of
gas and accounted for nearly 56 percent of Pakistan’s total output. A
decade later, the province produce 336 (BCF) and contributed only 25 percent
to national output”
The Government of Pakistan to this day confirms that the due
share of royalty which is taken by Sui Gas revenues is being
given to Sardar of Dera Bugti [When Nawab Akbar Bugti was alive
the Pakistani Government have always pointed out that the Gas
royalty is given to Nawab] but the Government never mentioned
that Sui Gas which is being taken to all the districts of Punjab,
Sindh & N.W.F.P has never reached to any district of Balochistan
except Quetta even Dera Bugti haven’t got Gas from where
the gas is being supplied.
The most important thing which a human being needs is drinking
water but for Baloch nation fetching water for themselves and
for their livestock becomes an everyday struggle because in
Balochistan the water and sewerage lines were never constructed.
Hub Dam was constructed so to fulfill the decreasing level
of water inside Karachi but nothing was done for the people
living inside Hub district or to nearby villages. The most
disastrous thing was when the Shadi Kaur Dam which was constructed
for the people of Pasni cracked with which many people lost
their lives and many became homeless. The shadi kaur incident
can be seen by this quote:
“The Shadi kaur was investigated and found that
it was build by simply blocking the flash flood water without
spillway and fuses to protect the dam which resulted in many
lost of lives due to failure of dam but if Shadi kaur dam
as it was completely filled had enough storage to meet the
water demands for Pasni for the next four years”.
The World Bank has this to say to the ongoing water crisis
inside Balochistan “Water is the single most important
constraint to developing rural Balochistan. While some 87
per cent of Pakistan’s total available water is found
in the river system of the Indus basin, only five per cent
of Balochistan’s landmass is connected to the Indus
basin and the remaining 95 per cent rely on non-perennial
sources. Since 97 per cent of province’s water use
is by agriculture, any strategy to deal with the water shortage
has to put this sector centre stage”.
The Chagai district of Balochistan which was nuked on 28 May
1998 by the then Government of Nawaz Sharif is still affected
by radiation. The water in the district is under severe radiation
through which many people have lost their eye sight and many
lost their other senses. The Medical and Educational Facilities
are absent in many district of Balochistan which are required
for better living in a society, but the Government of Pakistan
doesn’t seem to be interested to solve these crises of
Baloch nation except given them development in the name of
constructing a huge deep sea port.
The deep sea port actually is not going to solve even the tiny
bit problem the Baloch nation is facing today, the construction
of Roadways were not meant to give Baloch nation a better access
to other parts of Pakistan but was to link Gwadar Deep sea
port to other areas of Pakistan. Every Government whether it
be civilian or military leadership Baloch nation suffered more
problems than they were facing. For 62 years Balochistan was
under military might, every day bombardment, harassment, negligence
and being third grade citizen have made Baloch nation so much
depressed that they have started not to believe in any of the
claim the Government of Pakistan makes, because in these 62
years Baloch nation has seen more dead bodies of their families
that they have stopped vowing for equal rights. The Baloch
people today face the same Government claims as they have seen
in their previous days, Balochistan Package. If we talk about
the World Bank report which clearly state that Balochistan
today is far more degraded province than the other provinces
of Pakistan than these kind of packages [Balochistan Package]
will not make any difference in its recent state because what
Baloch nation demands its never been heard by any Government
of Pakistan and the demands echoed in the ruins of Balochistan.
Talking about the due rights of Balochistan will be given
like Mr Yousuf Raza Gillani stated recently there is no truth
to that because neither the Baloch nation demanded anything
nor the resistance movements have negotiated on the so called
Balochistan Package. Balochistan politically, socially & economically
is neglected and the situation inside Balochistan is not going
to be resolved by the so called Balochistan package. Balochistan
political situation can be called as dangerous for the political
activists who are engaged in the surface politics because every
day the FC [Frontier Constabulary] or the Spy agencies ISI & MI
are busy abducting, torturing and even murdering the political
activists whom are demanding independent. Economically & Socially
Baloch people are degraded as according to the report submitted
by World Bank that “Poverty in Balochistan has risen
and become statistically indistinguishable from that in the
NWFP, the province with traditionally the highest measured
poverty.”
Now those facts which are shown in the Balochistan Economic
Report 2009 can be called as “Bitter Truth”, because
for 62 years people of Balochistan have lived under slavery
as their oppressor have looted and plundered the resources
and were never accounted for their crimes because Balochistan
was not only neglected by the Government of Pakistan but the
International countries have never raised their concerned over
the worsening situation which was boiling up.
But now the time has changed and Balochistan is being recognized
as being rich with many mineral resources but neglected inside
the Federation of Pakistan. Baloch people now do not demand
for equal rights because they have came up their own way to
get their rights that is demanding total independent of Balochistan
for which they are struggling whether it be Guerrilla warfare
or politically, and for rebelling against Pakistan they are
not guilty because Pakistan in these 62 years didn’t
seem to care that inside its boundaries, A nation named Baloch
is living but rather the Pakistani army have been busy to genocide
Baloch nation to handle them with brute force and operation
which resulted in the Baloch insurgency and with this growing
root of insurgency the densely echoed sound of Independent
Balochistan has reached the ears of international communities.
Source World Bank [BER]: http://www.worldbank.org.pk/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/PAKISTANEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22380378~pagePK:1497618~piPK:217854~theSitePK:293052,00.html |
