A drop of rain (20082008)

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani issued directives on Sunday to release Rs 6 billion immediately to reduce the financial crisis being faced by the Balochistan government. Talking to a delegation, led by Chief Minister Balochistan Aslam Raisani at the Prime Minister House, he announced the financial assistance of Rs 6 billion: Rs 3 billion grant and Rs 3 billion royalty. The prime minister said efforts were being made to resolve the problems faced by the people of Balochistan. He said all available resources would be utilised in this regard.
This is like first drop of rain for Balochistan which has suffered immensely over past many decades and has borne the brunt of a number of military operations. If we look at the history of Balochistan then they were never willing partners of Pakistan, no meaningful role was played by the Baloch in the struggle for independence of Pakistan and other than the Nawab of Kalat providing security to Quaid-e-Azam very little documented contribution exists to prove otherwise. Baloch have always seen themselves nearer to the Iran and Oman than to Pakistan; in fact half of Balochistan is in Iran and Gwadar was part of Oman till it was gifted or sold to the government of Pakistan.
With this historic background and considering the mineral wealth in Balochistan one would have thought that the Pakistani Establishment over the years would have been more circumspect in dealing with the Baloch. And Balochistan would have received greater share of the national resources than it has done in past sixty years. The position of Bangladesh, former East Pakistan was quite the opposite, i.e., it was felt by some short sighted Pakistani leaders that there were too many mouths to feed and not enough contribution to the economy of Pakistan by Bengalis, which allowed its break-up. However, the logic is quite the reverse in the case of Balochistan, a region full of mineral wealth and very little population to support, but alas our leaders have been blinded by their greed and incompetence.
Same policy was followed in Balochistan which has been pursued in FATA and even lesser developed parts of Sindh and Punjab, where local landlords or the Maliks or the tribal chiefs were left alone and allowed to lord it over their subjects with very little interference from the federal or the provincial governments. As a result, over the decades the tribal chiefs, the Maliks and the land lords became more and more powerful and in the process, due to vacuum of the legal and political system, militants using the platform of the religion also grew in power and influence; this led to them eventually challenging the writ of the government, e.g., Akbar Bugti, Baitullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah.
Now that we have an elected government in place and it is claiming to follow policies different from its military predecessors, the important thing is to allow the development of process of a social, legal and political system as it exists in the rest of the country to continue in these under-developed areas and for this commitment of a few billion rupees is but a drop of rain. This effort needs to be sustained and strengthened if we are to tackle all the problems facing Pakistan.