The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Islamabad looks to calm domestic tension

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Thursday, May 05, 2005

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Opinion - News Analysis

Islamabad looks to calm domestic tension

B. Muralidhar Reddy

CONFIDENCE BUILDING measures (CBMs) are the new buzzword for the Pakistani establishment. Having "determined" that the peace process with India is irreversible, it is now focussed on calming tensions at home.

Balochistan, the centre of insurgency for nearly two years now, is an obvious priority. One of the two parliamentary committees formed to suggest ways to redress the grievances of the province's people has finalised a list of steps aimed at capturing their hearts and minds.

Provincial autonomy

The second committee dealing with changes required in the Constitution for greater provincial autonomy is expected to finalise its report soon.

Pakistan's largest province with 43 per cent of the country's territory, Balochistan is home to six per cent of the population. Though rich in natural resources, it is the country's most backward and neglected region.

Several factors have contributed to the new urgency on the part of the Pakistan military to tackle the unrest in Balochistan politically instead of as a law and order issue.

Having lost the so-called strategic depth in Afghanistan after the U.S. military intervention post-9/11, Pakistan's army could ill afford an unstable Balochistan. However, the initial decision to establish three cantonments in the province with little concern for the people's socio-economic welfare accentuated the simmering discontent.

On top of it, the marketing of the province as a prime region for global investment and as a corridor for trade to Central and West Asia without adequate stakes for the locals added fuel to the fire. Self-proclaimed Baloch nationalists are suspicious of the Army's agenda. They fear they would be reduced to a minority in their homeland.

The parliamentary committee on Balochistan seeks to address some of these apprehensions. At the deep-sea Gwadar port, being developed with Chinese help, it has suggested that the town's people be given preference; the second preference, as far as possible, should be given to the people of Makran and those of Balochistan.

The committee discussed grievances of various tribes and asked the Government to instruct the Frontier Constabulary and the Coast Guard to perform only the duties assigned to them — controlling drugs and arms. It also recommended the strengthening of levies and supply of life-saving drugs worth Rs. 1 billion to Balochistan hospitals.

It recommended setting aside seven per cent of the total revenue of the Gwadar port for the province's development and welfare.

Chieftains' lobby

How the new package will go down with the powerful lobby of 78 chieftains in the province is to be watched. One of their perennial grievances is that the province's wealth is being transferred to the already better off Punjab and that the country's armed might is being used for this.

In the words of Nawab Bugti: "They think that natural resources are national assets, and we think that they are Baloch assets, and whoever wants to use them must do so through us, not by direct possession." A few weeks ago Islamabad signed a peace accord with the influential Bugti.

Analysts in Islamabad wonder whether the lot of the Balochis can be improved as long as the Sardars continue to hold sway in the province.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is on record for saying that only three of the 78 Sardars were "trouble makers." The current phase of unrest in the province is the result of a total marginalisation of the traditional Baloch political parties.

In October 2002, thanks to generous help from the establishment, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a conglomerate of six religious parties, emerged as a major player in the Baloch politics.

Today, the province is ruled by the military propped-up Muslim League in alliance with the MMA, with no representation to the Baloch parties.

In the entire debate on the unrest in the province in the establishment, there is hardly any reference to the sidelining of the Baloch parties and its impact on the political situation.

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