Jango
SENIOR MODERATOR
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2010
- Messages
- 21,530
- Reaction score
- 99
- Country
- Location
Relocation had already happened in Balochistan. Pashtuns might outnumber Balochis living in Balochistan. No need to aggravate situation.
To placate Balochistan, the following steps can be taken by Pakistan government:
1. Build cost-effective apartment developments near industrial centers in Gwadar or with road access to them. These apartments can be given to the poorest of Balochis for free or at least for certain number of years until they earn enough income. China did something similar for its citizens that were dislocated due to national projects like dams, etc.
2. Set up industrial centers in populated areas along with vocational training schools. These schools can train people in manufacturing, mechanics skills, clerical work, etc.
3. Primary schools are set up to impart education, geared towards patriotism towards their country.
4. Some Baloch can be given loans & grants to start businesses, along with business management education to ensure they don't become typical Pakistani business suffering from nepotism.
Completely agree with all of this.
Unless and until you introduce human and socioeconomic development, you are just running in circles.
Steps #2 and #3 have already been implemented in Waziristan after the army operation and has been pretty successful. You can see WSK's Mahaaz documentary.
This is where it all breaks down though.
The development efforts have to be civilian led.
The efforts in Waziristan and ex-FATA are also now either stagnant, or breaking down (@PanzerKiel or someone else with more recent experience of the area or projects can better comment though). It is not the job of the army to create a school and introduce development work there or uplift the people.
This isn't the ISAF in Afghanistan, it is the Pakistan Army in Waziristan or wherever or Balochistan, all integral parts of the country with a functioning provincial government. The PA can clear the area, hold it, sanitize it, and maintain a presence, but it cannot do local development. Apart from the usual fauj paisa kha jati hai, div funds being used for schools and stationary items or whatnot, the major issue is the sustainability of the project. If the army continues to run these matters, then the area effectively becomes under army control with no civilian accountability or people representation.
You are still stuck with the army dealing with the tribal elders or the Maliks. The sooner you introduce proper governance to the areas, the better.
This is not to say that the army does this voluntarily. Sure, army does want to be head honcho and maintain influence, but it is in equal part fault of the civilian government for shying away from it's responsibilities. Not to make this political, but the PTI government was the only one which made substantial progress in asserting civilian oversight into ex-FATA. As soon as PDM came, all the funds to KP government were stopped and everything screeched to a halt. Do not know the current status.
In Balochistan, the sardars are happy with their cut of the pie, they get the royalties and the bhatta money and commission, are allowed to do as they please by the FC, and in return they don't give a damn what happens. The CM of Balochistan only rules over Quetta, the rest is a hodge podge of either ISI or FC or Army. The AC's and DC's in the smaller districts treat a posting there as a sight seeing trip rather than anything to do with public service. Gwadar is totally under army control. You cannot have sustainable progress within this framework. And no one is interested in changing the status quo.
I do not mean this post to be an army bashing one, I do plenty of that in political threads, but this is a genuine issue which needs to be objectively resolved for almost half of the country's land mass. I could extend this to GB and AJK as well, although to a lesser extent.