Published : August 5, 2009 Author : Ahmed Quraishi
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A college chemistry professor is murdered in cold blood at his house’s doorstep in Quetta, the latest in a long list of educationists cowardly assassinated by terrorists claiming to stand for the great Pakistani Baloch. These terrorists, backed by Brahamdagh Bugti and his paid mercenaries sponsored by India and the Karzai regime with US military turning a blind eye, have kidnapped 22 police officers. A terrorist group that calls itself Balochistan Republican Army (BRA) has slaughtered four of them and dumped their bodies in public places.
Despite all these acts of terrorism by the grandson of politician-turned-terrorist Akbar Bugti, no one in the pro-US federal and provincial governments is willing to condemn the terrorists. Last month these terrorists planted a bomb on a train leaving Karachi and detonated it just half an hour away from Quetta, killing an innocent Pakistani Baloch. No condemnation then too.
The sheepish and apologetic attitude of the Pakistani government is inexplicable. Last month this government gave the Indians and the Americans damning proof on how Indian spy outfits were using the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to target Balochistan. As much as eight foreign spy agencies are cramming this Pakistani territory. Yet the Pakistani state is reluctant to call a spade a spade. The pro-US government's chief minister in Balochistan Nawab Asalm Raisani is on record having said to reporters a few months ago, "I don't know if there is foreign involvement in the province. Go ask those who say there is." Obviously, in his many meetings with President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, no one cared to share with him the photographs of Brahamdagh Bugti cavorting with the Indians and Karzai's men not just in Kabul but in New Delhi. A better explanation is that the feudal-politicians of Balochistan, like their kin in the rest of the Pakistani politics, are ready to accept a separated Balochistan in the hope that this somehow will help weaken the grip of the Pakistani military and forever stain it in the eyes of its own people.
Here is what is happening on this front:
1. Reports are emerging that Harbyar Mari, a terrorist given sanctuary and protection by the British government, is preparing to declare the 'independence' of Balochistan. The date for this declaration has been set as 11 August, according to an alert issued by BRASSTACKS, a Pakistani security and defense analysis think tank run by eminent expert Zaid Hamid.
2. This comes with reports that the Zardari government is preparing to grant 'full autonomy' to Balochistan within the Pakistani federation. In essence, this means Pakistan will soon have its own version of Iraq's Kurdistan. Considering the volatile security situation in the region and the active interest of both the Americans and Indians in wresting Balochistan from Pakistani hands, this would prove to be a kiss of death for Pakistan's national integrity. The US media is quiet these days on the so-called Greater Pashtunistan, but in the last two years, the US media leaked story after story on the feasibility of this option. These leaked reports reflected an organized campaign by people within Pentagon and CIA. This campaign ceased only after protests by Pakistani officials. Another reason why this campaign stopped is to give some space to unknown 'terrorists' who have infiltrated from Afghanistan to Pakistan under the guise of the so-called Pakistani Taliban. The Kabul regime and its Indian and American allies were hoping that the death and mayhem created among Pakistani Pashtuns would be enough to rally the Pashtun of both Pakistan and Afghanistan to demand an independent country. Luckily, the Pakistani Pashtun, who are an important and active part of the Pakistani society and the power structure, understood the game and refused to play along despite enticements coming from inside the Afghan territory.
3. According to BRASSTACKS, the US government has requested the Zardari government to give part of the Balochistan coastal are to the US Navy to construct a port that would serve the US occupation forces in Afghanistan. Surprisingly, the Zardari government is actually considering the option. Mr. Zardari is also eager to get back at China, which refused to financially bail out his corrupt pro-American government. China financed part of the Gwadar project.
4. Meanwhile the potential of the Gwadar port has almost been destroyed and it is a matter of time before Pakistan's inept politicians turn it into another irretrievable mess. First Akbar Bugti and his foreign-supported terrorists attacked the project. Now the political parties in power are playing their usual games over the project in the hope of milking maximum kickbacks. So far the Zardari government is yet to commit funds for the remaining parts of the Gwadar port expansion. This happens while the Indians have completed and operationalized the competing Iranian port of Chah Bahar. The US surprisingly permitted Iranian and Indian companies to build roads in eastern Afghanistan connecting the Indian port despite the American aversion to anything that benefits Iran.
5. Balochistan is an American target. Pakistani politicians and some people within the Pakistani security establishment should make no mistake about it. CIA is supporting Sunni Balochis in Iran while backing an ethnic insurgency in Pakistan. It is not a coincidence that Jundullah in Iran and BLA in Pakistan emerged after the arrival of US military and CIA in Afghanistan, in the past five years to be more specific. Before 2004, there was no BLA or Jundullah anywhere.
6. Washington continues to refuse to declare the so-called Balochistan Liberation Army a terrorist group despite the fact that this group has claimed responsibility for killing countless college professors and other civilians in random acts of terror in Pakistan over the past five years. Some Pakistani analysts cite strong circumstantial evidence that the CIA is running operations in the area that may not be in the full knowledge of the new US administration and may in fact contradict the stated US policy of not supporting terrorism and covert operations against allies.
The 'Bugti Hero Brigade' of Zardari-Gilani-Nawaz-Altaf
Instead of putting a politician-turned-terrorist on a pedestal, it is time to ask the question: Was Mr. Akbar Bugti acting on foreign guarantees when he launched without notice a blitzkrieg of rocket fire on vital installations one fine morning in January 2005?
There is enough evidence now that confirms the thesis that Mr. Bugti was dealing directly with the Indians and Karzai’s people. His grandson Brahamdagh moves around in Kabul under the protection of Karzai's security. There is also evidence that some tribal chieftains in Balochistan were promised they would live like Gulf Arab sheikhs in a new entity carved out of southwest Pakistan if they supported the Bugti terrorist movement.
Why does the provincial government of Nawab Aslam Raisani avoid condemning these terrorists? More stunning is the reply of Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the Senate when questioned about how a Pakistani television station was allowed to air an interview with a London-based member of the Brahamdagh terror group. Mr. Malik said the interview was taped in London and “you know there is freedom of speech there.”
What a joke. Britain is providing a sanctuary to people who finance and support terrorism inside Pakistan and all our powerful security czar can say about this is to cite Britain’s speech laws. Is there a conflict of interest here between Mr. Malik’s personal life and interests in the UK and his official duty to level with the Brits on their duplicitous policy?
The terrorist acts and the new evidence is a great opportunity to delegitimize the terrorists who claim to own Balochistan. But our usually bland and uncreative political elite is incapable of encashing this opportunity.
Major grievances aside, there is no direct discrimination against Pakistani Baloch on ethno-language grounds from anyone in the rest of the country. The level of education of Pakistani Baloch denies them opportunities to climb the social ladder. And the blame for this rests squarely with both the federal government and Balochistan’s tribal chieftains. The landlord-feudal politicians of Pakistan are responsible for compounding the problems of Pakistanis everywhere. And there is no hope in sight that those running the federal government – PPP now or PML in the future – can change anything on the ground.
The Solution
Pakistan needs a practical, nationalistic and visionary federal administration that can take monumental steps to reorganize the State and provinces.
These are the major long-term steps that Islamabad needs to take to arrest the push toward Balkanization:
1. Instead of autonomy, the four ethnic-based provinces of Pakistan need to be turned into smaller administrative provinces with their own small parliaments and directly elected governors. This will break national politics into smaller pieces and refocus the people's attention on local politics and development issues instead of the destructive national politics we see today.
2. Ban ethnic-, language- and sectarian-based political parties.
3. Introduce capital punishment for corruption and treason.
4. Ban the conduct of 'private foreign policy' by politicians and political parties with foreign governments.
5. Seize the vast land holdings of the landlord-political elite and empower the more creative and capable lower and middle class Pakistanis to step forward.
6. Forcibly democratize the family-owned political parties of Pakistan.
The big question is: Who will do this? Interestingly, a group of eminent Pakistanis with no political affiliations has come together to answer this question. Members of the group have assigned themselves to developing an out-of-the-box answer to one question: How to enact these difficult reforms outside the realm of the chaotic Pakistani democratic process? This group is expected to soon make its findings public.
Pakistan needs creative minds at the top to unlock the initiative of its people. We need change. But let’s begin with condemning the terrorists who have taken ownership of Balochistan without any contest from the pro-US government in Islamabad.
The original version of this column appeared in The News International. This is an updated version that reflects the latest developments in southwest Pakistan.
