By far the territorially largest and strategically the most significant province of Pakistan is, as a matter of fact, also the most poor. Welcome to Balochistan, the heart of ‘Pakistani Darkness’! Extremely rich in natural resources, including gas and oil, Balochistan remains the most impoverished province and its people far below the poverty line. No wonder, the Baloch rank the lowest on the development index.
Balochistan was in the limelight of Pakistani politics during the second week of April when some 20 labourers, working for Frontier Works Organisation, were killed near Turbat in Balochistan. This incident was preceded and followed by a number of deaths of Baloch nationalists who are struggling for their legitimate rights. Although Frontier Core, a paramilitary force, claimed on April 13, 2015 to have killed “terrorists” responsible for killing labourers, military operation is far from any chance of successfully solving the Baloch problem.
Socioeconomic disparities between Balochistan and the developed parts of the country are far too wide to be reconciled through such operations. The human development index provides a clear view of the situation in Balochistan. Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi are at the top of the index, while most areas of Balochistan are at the lowest.
This discrepancy becomes even more acute when one looks at the natural resources this province has in its blossom. According to a 2007 report of Geological Survey of Pakistan, out of the total 50 minerals being produced in Pakistan, 40 come from Balochistan. Apart from huge reservoirs of minerals, the province also has significant quantities of metallic (copper, Iron, lead-zinc, Titanium etc.) and non-metallic materials (coal, fluorite, barite, gypsum and anhydrite, limestone and dolomite). Its coal reserves are estimated to be at 184 billion tonnes; Iron Ore around 600 million tonnes; copper around 6 billion tonnes, and very large proven reservoirs of Antimony, Marble and Sulphur are also there. Apart from these proven resources, the most significant resources of Balochistan are oil and gas. Pakistan has an estimated 25.1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves of which 19 trillion are located in Balochistan, and according to the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Pakistan has proven oil reserves of 300 million barrels, most of which are located in Balochistan.
Although successive governments have been claiming to have laid the basis of provincial development and have indulged in announcing different plans for the socio-economic uplift of the people of Balochistan. Such plans included Gwadar Sea port Development (estimated cost Rs 16, 380 million); Mirani Dam Project (estimated cost Rs. 5861 million); Kachi Canal Project (estimated cost Rs. 31, 204 million); Coastal Highway Project (estimated cost Rs. 15, 010 million). However, all the announcements and most of such plans have, somehow, remained fixed to papers only, or are still at early stages of implementation. Its reasons are varied; however, one significant reason for lack of or slow implementation is that the people of Balochistan have grown highly suspicious of such plans, and their latent purposes. They believe that these projects are only meant to facilitate the upcoming Gwadar city and the naval base there. Although official documents do not mention such diversions, these concerns have been repeatedly raised at different forums including the mainstream media of Pakistan by the Baloch representatives. Reasons for such concerns are, to a considerable extent, understandably. When one looks at the ground realities of Balochistan, one is factually stunned to see high level of dichotomy which exists between this province and other provinces, especially Punjab. The people of Balochistan are not oblivious of this dichotomy; therefore, they have increasingly started to believe that their resources are being used and exploited to ‘feed’ larger provinces while they themselves are forced to live hand to mouth. They frequently express their fear that these projects would dispossess them of their lands, resources and also of their distinct identity.
As a matter of fact, natural gas was discovered at Sui in 1953, but, for some unknown reasons, the local people could not enjoy its benefits until 1986 when the then central government decided to station military forces in the provincial capital. Although gas produced at Sui accounts for 36 percent of Pakistan’s total gas production, only 17 percent of it goes to Balochistan, the remaining 83 percent is sent to other provinces. What lends credibility to such beliefs and arguments, apart from the failure of governments to deliver, is nothing but the figures that depict the state of education, health and welfare within this province to be acutely worse than anywhere else in Pakistan. Feelings of expropriation, marginalisation in the national mainstream politics, and dispossession of their land, distinct identity and traditions are the fundamental issues which are creating a sense of alienation among the people of Balochistan, and driving them towards perceiving separation as the only viable solution. Pakistan needs to seriously re-think its approach towards Balochistan before it gets too late to do so, leaving the country to suffer second disintegration after the fall of East Bengal in 1971.
