Pakistan- the Balochistan Conundrum

by Tilak Devasher

  22. Ibid.

  23. Frederic Grare, ‘Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism’, South Asia Project Number 65, January 2006, p. 5, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, http://carnegieendowment.org/files/CP65.Grare.FINAL.pdf, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  24. Iftikhar Firdous, ‘Deprived province: 59 per cent of Balochistan without natural gas’, The Express Tribune, 26 May 2014, https://tribune.com.pk/story/713135/deprived-province-59-of-balochistan-without-natural-gas/, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  25. Government of Balochistan, White Paper 2015–16, p. 8.

  26. Frederic Grare, ‘Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism’, p. 5.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2016–17, p. 19.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), ‘Balochistan: Civil–Military Relations’, Islamabad, March 2012, http://www.pildat.org/publications/ublication/cmr/issuepaperbalochistanconflictcmr.pdf, p. 15, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  31. Syed Fazle Haider, ‘Higher poverty in Balochistan’, Dawn, 6 February 2006, cited in International Crisis Group, ‘Pakistan: The Worsening Conflict in Balochistan’, 2006, p. 17.

  32. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, pp. 9 and 17.

  33. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, ‘Confronting Injustices’, Daily Times, 20 September 2015, https://dailytimes.com.pk/98359/confronting-injustices/, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  34. Ibid.

  35. Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2015–16, p. 19.

  36. Paul Titus, ‘Introduction’ in Sylvia Matheson, The Tigers of Baluchistan, Karachi: OUP, second editions, 1997, p. xx.

  37. Explaining why the Marris opposed oil exploration in their lands, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri said: ‘We saw what happened in the Bugti area, where they have “developed” the Sui gas, 80 per cent of which goes out of Balochistan to make others rich.’, Selig S. Harrison, In Afghanistan’s Shadow, p. 47.

  38. ICG Report, 2006, p. 16.

  39. Zafar Bhutta, ‘Balochistan presses for share in PPL dividends’, The Express Tribune, 27 December 2015. http://tribune.com.pk/story/1016701/looking-to-reap-benefits-balochistan-presses-for-share-in-ppl-dividends/, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  40. Frederic Grare, ‘Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Nationalism’, p. 4.

  41. Khaleeq Kiani, ‘Emerging gas market, privatisation and the CCI’, Dawn, 17 July 2006, https://www.dawn.com/news/201698, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  42. Government of Balochistan, Budget White Paper 2015–16, p. 9.

  43. Muhammad Ijaz Laif and Muhammad Amir Hamza, ‘Ethnic Nationalism in Pakistan: A Case Study of Baloch Nationalism during Musharraf Regime’, Pakistan Vision, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 64, http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Artical%20-%204.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  44. Shah Meer Baloch, ‘I was the first chief minister to address the existence of death squads in Balochistan: Abdul Malik Baloch’, Herald, 24 December 2017, https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153954/i-was-the-first-chief-minister-to-

  address-the-existence-of-death-squads-in-balochistan-abdul-malik-baloch, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  45. Maqbool Ahmed, ‘Magic Mountain: The Reko Diq Gold and Copper Mining project’, Herald, September 2017, https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153283, (accessed 3 March 2018).

  46. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, ‘Not the Brinjals’ Servant’, Daily Times, 13 September 2015, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/13-Sep-2015/not-the-brinjals-servant, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  47. Government of Balochistan, Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013–2017, http://aserpakistan.org/document/learning_resources/2014/Sector_Plans/Balochistan per cent20Sector per cent20Plan per cent202013-2017.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  48. Mary Anne Weaver, Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan, Straus and Girous, USA 2002, Indian edition, New Delhi: Viking, Penguin Books India, 2003, pp. 105–06.

  49. See the author’s Pakistan: Courting the Abyss, NOIDA: Harper Collins India, 2016, pp, 207–27.

  50. Kashif Shaikh & Ashfaq Ahmed, ‘Water shortage: How long will Balochistan have to suffer?’ The Express Tribune Blogs, 3 December 2016, http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/43563/water-shortage-how-long-will-balochistan-have-to-suffer/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  51. UNDP, Pakistan, ‘Drought Risk Assessment in the Province of Balochistan, Pakistan’, 15 January 2016, http://www.pk.undp.org/content/pakistan/en/home/library/crisis_prevention_and_recovery/drought-risk-assessment-in-balochistan-province--pakistan.html, (accessed 3 March 2018).

  52. ‘Water for Balochistan’, editorial in Dawn, 5 January 2019, https://www.dawn.com/news/1455550/water-for-balochistan, (accessed on 20 February 2019).

  53. ‘Quetta’s water crisis’, editorial in Dawn, 2 September 2018 https://www.dawn.com/news/1430495, (accessed 20 February 2018).

  54. Zafar Bhutta, ‘Balochistan accuses Sindh of stealing its water’, The Express Tribune, 22 September 2016. http://tribune.com.pk/story/1186158/water-indent-balochistan-accuses-sindh-stealing-water/, (accessed on 27 Februaery 2018).

  55. ‘Parched realities’, editorial in The Nation, 4 February 2018, https://nation.com.pk/04-Feb-2018/parched-realities, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  56. Khawar Ghumman, ‘Balochistan losing groundwater, warns report’, Dawn, 26 October 2015, http://www.dawn.com/news/1215455/balochistan-losing-groundwater-warns-report, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  57. Farman Kakar, ‘Extraction without responsibility’, The News, 20 March 2016,

  http://tns.thenews.com.pk/extraction-without-responsibility/#.Vu709Pl97IU,

  (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  58. Mushtaq Rajpar, ‘The political economy of Balochistan’, The News, 24 June 2017, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/212514-The-political-economy-of-Balochistan, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  59. Ibid.

  60. Government of Balochistan, Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013–2017, p. 10.

  61. Adnan Aamir, ‘What Nawaz Sharif did for Balochistan’, Daily Times, 5 August 2017, http://dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/05-Aug-17/what-nawaz-sharif-did-for-balochistan, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  62. Adnan Aamir, ‘Balochistan’s under-reported poverty’, The News on Sunday, (TNS), 28 May 2017, http://tns.thenews.com.pk/balochistans-reported-poverty/#.WSpc7WiGPIU, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Ibid.

  66. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, p. 60.

  67. Adnan Aamir, ‘Unemployment in Balochistan’, The News, 27 April 2015, http://www.adnan-aamir.com/2015/04/unemployment-in-balochistan.html, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  68. Ibid.

  10. Socio-economic Deprivation

  1. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice: Empirical Insights from Balochistan, Karachi: OUP, 2018, pp. 49, 134.

  2. World Bank, ‘Pakistan–Balochistan Economic Report: From Periphery to Core’, No. 40345-PK May 2008, p. 148, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/8082, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  3. Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), ‘Balochistan: Civil–Military Relations’, Islamabad, March 2012, http://www.pildat.org/publications/publication/cmr/issuepaperbalochistanconflictcmr.pdf, p. 15, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  4. Sher Baz Khan, ‘Unemployment on rise, says ADB’, Dawn, 22 May 2007, https://www.dawn.com/news/248191, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  5. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, p. xix.

  6. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Balochistan: Giving the People a Chance’, Report of a HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, June 2013, p. 35, http://www.hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/Balochistan per cent20Report per cent20New per cent20Final.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  7. Arif Naveed, Geof Wood and Muhammad Usman Ghaus, ‘Geography of Poverty in Pakistan—2008-09 to 2012-13: Distribution, Trends and Explanations’
, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund & Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad, 2016, p. iii, http://www.ppaf.org.pk/doc/regional/6-PPAF_SDPI_Report_%20Geography_of_Poverty_in_Pakistan.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid., p. iv.

  10. Ibid., p. iii.

  11. Naseer Memon, ‘The Balochistan conundrum’, The News, 16 April 2017 http://tns.thenews.com.pk/balochistan-conundrum/#.Wr-gY62B06g, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  12. Arif Naveed, Geof Wood and Muhammad Usman Ghaus, ‘Geography of Poverty in Pakistan’, p. vii.

  13. Deserving families are selected via a nationwide poverty census (last completed in 2011) and receive Rs 4,700 a quarter, paid to the woman of the house.

  14. Assad Ahmad, ‘Balochistan’s missing poor’, Dawn, 24 March 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1397227/balochistans-missing-poor, (accessed on 31 March 2018).

  15. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, p. 27.

  16. Haroon Jamal, ‘Quantifying sub-national human development indices from household survey data’, Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), Karachi, May 2016, http://www.spdc.org.pk/Data/Publication/PDF/RR-96.pdf, p. 1, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  17. Ibid., pp. 5–6.

  18. Ibid., p. 7.

  19. Ibid., p. 8.

  20. Ibid., p. 9.

  21. Dr Sadia Ali, ‘The poor daughter of Balochistan’, The News, 17 August 2016, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/142987-The-poor-daughter-of-Balochistan, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  22. Syeda Shehrbano Kazim, ‘Balochistan can become the only part of the world with full employment’, Dawn, 26 October 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1441342, (accessed 20 February 2019).

  23. Saleem Shahid, ‘Call for Nutrition Emergency In Balochistan’, Dawn, 1 May 2017, https://www.Dawn.Com/News/1330316/Call-For-Nutrition-Emergency-In-Balochistan, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  24. ‘Malnutrition in Balochistan’, editorial in Daily Times, 2 May 2017, www.dailytimes.com.pk, , (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  25. Kaiser Bengali, A Cry for Justice, p.7.

  26. Adnan Aamir, ‘What Nawaz Sharif did for Balochistan’, Daily Times, 5 August 2017, http://dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/05-Aug-17/what-nawaz-sharif-did-for-balochistan, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  27. Syed Fazl-e-Haider, ‘Higher poverty in Balochistan’, Dawn, 6 February 2006, https://www.dawn.com/news/177446, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  28. Khanji Harijana, Mohammad A. Uqailib, Mujeebuddin Memona and Umar K. Mirza, ‘Potential of On-shore Wind Power in the Coastal Areas of Balochistan, Pakistan’, Wind Engineering, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2010, pp. 167–79.

  29. UNDP Pakistan, ‘Pakistan: Millennium Development Goals—Provincial Status, 2012–13’, http://www.pk.undp.org/content/pakistan/en/home/library/mdg/mdgs-status-for-districts-in-balochistan.html, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  30. The 2017 census indicated that only 27.62 per cent of Balochistan’s population is urban, while the national urban population is 32.5 per cent.

  31. Abdul Wahab, ‘A Province in Peril’, Newsline, June 2009, http://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/the-final-showdown/, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  32. Government of Balochistan, Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013–2017, http://aserpakistan.org/document/learning_resources/2014/Sector_Plans/Balochistan per cent20Sector per cent20Plan per cent202013-2017.pdf, p. 8, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  33. Abdul Wahab, ‘A Province in Peril’.

  34. Saleem Shahid, ‘Situation in Balochistan deplorable: CJP’, Dawn, 11 December 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1450699, (accessed on 4 January 2019).

  35. Qazi Azmat Isa, ‘Building a cohesive state’, Dawn, 22 August 2015, http://www.dawn.com/news/1201962/building-a-cohesive-state], (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  36. Various reports.

  37. PILDAT, ‘Balochistan: Civil–Military Relations’, p. 15.

  IV: CHINESE GAMBIT

  11. Gwadar

  1. ‘The Mega Follies’, Dawn, 31 January 2008, https://www.dawn.com/news/409575, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  2. Naseer Memon, ‘Killing fields of Balochistan’, The News, http://tns.thenews.com.pk/killing-fields-balochistan/#.WSpcvmiGPIU, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  3. Captain Harry Willes Darell de Windt, A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan, 1891, cited in International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS), Balochistan: Denial of Destiny, London: European Media Ltd., 2012, p. xxiv.

  4. Robert D. Kaplan, ‘Pakistan’s Fatal Shore’, The Atlantic, May 2009, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/pakistans-fatal-shore/307385/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  5. Abdul Wali, ‘Gwadar isn’t a “mega city”, it isn’t even a city yet!’, The Express Tribune, 20 March 2016. http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/32247/gwadar-isnt-a-mega-city-it-isnt-even-a-city-yet/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  6. Farrukh Saleem, ‘Gwadar’, The News, 11 September 2016, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/149434-Gwadar, (accessed 27 February 2018).

  7. Azhar Ahmad, ‘Unravelling Gwadar town’, The Frontier Post, 4 May 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20130929104602/http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/10194.htm, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  8. Rai Muhammad Saleh Azam, ‘Gwadar’s Accession to Pakistan’, Pakistan Defence, 21 April 2015, https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/gwadars-accession-to-pakistan.371824/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  9. Christophe Jaffrelot, ‘A Tale of Two Ports’, Yale Global Online, 7 January 2011, ,http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/tale-two-ports, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  10. ‘Rs 894 million Pak-Belgian contract to build Gwadar port’, Dawn, 18 July 1988; Abdul Majeed, ‘Comments: truth about Gwadar port project’, The News, 30–31 July 2006, cited in Sushant Sareen, ‘Balochistan: Forgotten War, Forsaken People’, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi, September 2017, http://www.vifindia.org/sites/default/files/Balochistan-Forgotten-War-Forsaken-People.pdf,, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  11. ‘Singapore to run Gwadar port’, The Post, 23 December 2006, cited in Sushant Sareen, ‘Balochistan: Forgotten War, Forsaken People’.

  12. Sanaullah Baloch, ‘The Gwadar deal’ The News, 13 February 2016, http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/97926-The-Gwadar-deal, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  13. Syed Fazl-e-Haider, ‘Non-functional Gwadar Port’, Dawn, 30 June 2008, https://www.dawn.com/news/309512, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  14. Peer Muhammad, ‘Gwadar’s free-trade zone: Pakistan to hand over 2,281 acres to Chinese on Nov 11’, The Express Tribune, 10 November 2015, http://tribune.com.pk/story/988331/gwadars-free-trade-zone-pakistan-to-hand-over-2281-acres-to-chinese-on-nov-11/, (accessed on 27 February 2018); ‘Chinese firm gets land for free-trade zone in Gwadar’, The Express Tribune, 12 November 2015, http://tribune.com.pk/story/989763/chinese-firm-gets-land-for-free-trade-zone-in-gwadar/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  15. Saheed Shah, ‘Big Chinese-Pakistani Project Tries to Overcome Jihadists, Droughts and Doubts’, The Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-chinese-pakistani-project-tries-to-overcome-jihadists-droughts-and-doubts-1460274228, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  16. Tim Willasey-Wilsey, ‘Gwadar and the “String of Pearls”’, Gateway House, 8 January 2016 https://www.gatewayhouse.in/gwadar-and-the-string-of-pearls-2/, accessed on 27 February 2018.

  17. Khurram Husain, ‘China’s road through Pakistan’, Dawn, 23 November 2017,

  https://www.dawn.com/news/1372349/chinas-road-through-pakistan, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  18. Shahbaz Rana, ‘Pakistan rejects use of Chinese currency’, The Express Tribune, 21 November 2017, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1564050/2-pakistan-rejects-use-chinese-currency/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  19. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Human Rights in Balochistan and Balochistan’s Rights’, Report of a HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, October 2003, p. 65, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/20.pd, (accessed on 3
March 2018).

  20. M.A. Niazi, ‘Running out of options’, The Nation, 19 August 2016, http://nation.com.pk/columns/19-Aug-2016/running-out-of-options, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  21. ‘Mengal asks govt to hand over Gwadar port to Balochistan’, Dawn, 23 November 2015, http://www.dawn.com/news/1221621/mengal-asks-govt-to-hand-over-gwadar-port-to-balochistan, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  22. Adnan Aamir, ‘The Baloch’s concerns’, The News, 31 December 2017, http://tns.thenews.com.pk/balochs-concerns/#.Wkhv7d-WbIU, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  23. Ibid.

  24. Muhammad Ijaz Laif and Muhammad Amir Hamza, ‘Ethnic Nationalism in Pakistan: A Case Study of Baloch Nationalism during Musharraf Regime’, Pakistan Vision, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 65, http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Artical%20-%204.pdf, (accessed on 03 March 2018).

  25. Mohsin Saleem Ullah, ‘Gwadar: China’s next abode by 2023’, The Nation, 29 November 2017, http://nation.com.pk/29-Nov-2017/gwadar-china-s-next-abode-by-2023, (accessed on 27 February 2018); Murtaza Ali Shah, ‘500,000 Chinese professionals expected in Gwadar by 2023’, The News, 21 October 2017, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/238644-500000-Chinese-professionals-expected-in-Gwadar-by-2023, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  26. International Crisis Group, Pakistan (ICG), ‘The Worsening Conflict in Balochistan’, Asia Report No. 119, 14 September 2006, p. 15, https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/119-pakistan-the-worsening-conflict-in-balochistan.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  27. Irfan Ghauri, ‘Changing Demographics Fuel Ethnic Tensions—II’, The Express Tribune, 30 November 2015, https://tribune.com.pk/story/1000901/changing-demographics-fuel-ethnic-tensions-ii/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  28. Idrees Bakhtiar, ‘Mega projects are a conspiracy to turn the Balochis into a minority in their own homeland’, The Herald, August 2004, cited in Foreign Policy Centre, ‘Balochis of Pakistan: On the Margins of History’, London: Foreign Policy Centre, 2006, p. 55, https://fpc.org.uk/publications/balochis-of-pakistan-on-the-margins-of-history/, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  29. Mumtaz Alvi, ‘Senate calls for steps to preserve Gwadar’s demographic balance’, The News, 22 January 2019 https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/421930-senate-calls-for-steps-to-preserve-gwadar-s-demographic-balance, (accessed on 27 February 2019).