State failure in Balochistan
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Pakistan’s strategically located western province of Balochistan was once again in the eye of the storm for two weeks, before a deal with the government broke an impasse on Thursday. For days, angry protesters disrupted life in parts of the province, which has long been a center of discontent. They were protesting enforced disappearances, alleged extra-judicial killings and demanding democratic political rights for the Baloch people. They want their people to get their due share of development and local economic resources, from what they see as unfair exploitation of their province’s wealth.
These are long-standing demands of the Baloch people. But instead of addressing these very real grievances, the state resorted to force to suppress cries for justice. Coercive measures however, have failed time and again to crush the peoples’ power. Defying the government’s ban and with an Internet blockade that lasted a fortnight, thousands of protesters from all over the province gathered in the Gwadar coastal town- the location of the key seaport and a flagship project of the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
This was not the first time the Baloch people came into the streets for their demands. But the latest wave of protests had much greater political implications given the massive public support they mobilized in this highly sensitive region.
Over the years, simmering discontent has spilled over due to the consistent denial of basic democratic rights to the people of Balochistan. Anti-government agitation has spread to a large part of the province. This is the manifestation of a growing alienation of the Baloch population.
Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan, comprising 43 percent of of the country’s land mass. It is rich in mineral resources and a major supplier of natural gas. The province has the world’s biggest copper deposits and the rich potential of oil, uranium and other resources. But it’s also the poorest and least populated. Despite its natural wealth, the province remains the most underdeveloped region in Pakistan, and is ranked very low on social indicators.
Even the much-touted development under CPEC has done little to improve the economic conditions of the people, and has led to growing skepticism about Chinese-Pakistani projects in the province. It’s also the reason the protesters held their rally specifically in Gwadar.
It’s apparent the state cannot control the growing public discontent by resorting to brute force. As the events of the past two weeks showed, repressive action cannot work to crush the people’s legitimate struggle.
Zahid Hussain
At its heart however, it’s the enforced disappearance of rights’ activists that has exacerbated public anger against the state. Thousands of Baloch men, many of them young university students, have allegedly been picked up by intelligence agencies. There is no hope of them coming back alive. The number of enforced disappearances and incidents of judicial killings have increased, with the state facing a growing separatist militancy. Human rights groups estimate more than 3,000 people are missing.
The latest rights movement was led by the nationalist groups under the banner of the Baloch Unity Council (BUC). Led by Mahrang Baloch, a young firebrand doctor-- and a woman-- the BUC has emerged as the most powerful resistance movement against state oppression. A large number of the demonstrators too were women, whose family members had either been missing for years or had been killed, their mutilated bodies found dumped months or years later.
The main objective of the peaceful protest was to draw attention to the plight of the hapless population, but use of brute force by the state drew a violent response from the protesters and led to the deaths of three people, including a Pakistani soldier.
Though the protests for now are over, the people of Balochistan have no trust in the manipulated political system imposed on the province. The authority of the state is now being increasingly challenged by the people’s power.
Most alarming is that state repression has given rise to separatist militancy in the province. For years, Balochistan has been in the grips of a low-intensity conflict, and has experienced four insurgencies since independence. The latest phase of the conflict began around two decades ago. The state crackdown is providing ready recruits to militant groups which have become much more active with growing anti-state sentiments. The state’s authority has clearly eroded in large parts of the province.
It’s apparent the state cannot control the growing public discontent by resorting to brute force. As the events of the past two weeks showed, repressive action cannot work to crush the people’s legitimate struggle.
What is most worrisome is that continuing unrest in the province could seriously hamper development projects under CPEC. But at the same time, what is most important is that the benefit of these large-scale developments reach and boost the lives of the local population.
- Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a former scholar at Woodrow Wilson Centre and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and at the Stimson Center in DC. He is author of Frontline Pakistan: The struggle with Militant Islam and The Scorpion’s tail: The relentless rise of Islamic militants in Pakistan. Frontline Pakistan was the book of the year (2007) by the WSJ. His latest book ‘No-Win War’ was published this year. X: @hidhussain
