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By Agha Amin
While visiting Quetta just a day ago I was surprised to hear about attitudes of some key persons on the scene.
Officer A-- The Baloch are charsis and good for nothing ?
Officer B-- The Baloch dont work hard , look at the Pashtuns who are much better ?
Officer C -- If your sub contractor is non Baloch he can get work ?
The factual position is as following :--
1- A large part of Pakistans work is based on baradari , ethnicity and sect.In this context the Baloch has no place.All anti smuggling government forces in Balochistan are Pashtun or Punjabi.The FC is 100 percent Pashtun although lately Punjabis have been introduced in FC through backdoor.Thus FC gives a free hand to Pashtun smugglers while Baloch are harassed.
2-Pakistans foundation was not merit.So the Hindus and Sikhs were massacred in West Punjab so that an unfair advantage can be created for Punjabis.Thus properties and industries were grabbed free of cost in lahore and pindi.this is the merit that pakistanis talk about.
3-Soon after partition in 1955 Balochistan Province was abolished and all decisions taken from lahore.All along till 1969.So what chance did Baloch have.Such was the discrimination that in 1973 nearly 100 % of Quetta police was non Baloch and mostly Punjabi.
4-The story of military action in 1973-76 is well documented.
4-After 1979 systematically Afghan refugees were given Pakistani NIC and demographic change encouraged.
5-In 2002 Musharraf started Gwadar port , not for Baloch but to change the demography against Baloch.Similarly the Greater Kachi Canal was started to bring non Baloch settlers and turn the Baloch into minority in 2002.
6-My research indicates that for each non Baloch killed in Quetta , a Baloch is killed next day ! So there is a pattern and Baloch are fast losing the war in face of officials who regard them as sub humans !
I have seen Baloch in top positions in academia,technology,agriculture and military arts worldwide.
In Afghanistan General Ghafoor a Baloch and a personal friend gave hell to Haqqani network under General Shahnawaz Tanai in Khost in 1986.Ghafur was decorated by President Karmal in a ceremony with Afghanistans highest awards.
Baloch farmers worked wonders as settlers in South and West Punjab and in Sindh and even in many parts of Balochistan.
This is not about merit but about sheer discrimination !
It is the same discrimination that Punjabi and UP Muslims alleged against Hindus and Sikhs in pre 1947.
The present Balochistan government lacks legitimacy because all main stream Baloch parties boycotted elections of 2008 because of outrages of the military usurper Musharraf .So the present chief minister is not a genuine Baloch representative at all.
I asked a senior Intelligence Bureau official then dismissed in 2002 and now reinstated , as to what was his role in IB.He stated to make one tribe fight another !
ZAB pitched Bugti against Marris ! Musharraf pitched South Baloch Gujjars like Jam Sahib against mainstream Baloch tribes and now we have Brahvis pitched against Marris and Bugtis.
This is what is exactly happening in Balochistan with Aslam Raisani of Raisani tribe described by famous author Ron Suskind as agent of British and French Intelligence in his book Ways of the world !
It is time to question these divisive and discriminatory policies.From what is happening in Balochistan one can see that it is neither fair nor just but a reincarnation of anarchy par excellence.
My study reveals that those in charge of Balochistan and Balochistan policy see physical elimination,arbitrary arrest and disappearance as the answer and all this will fail.Even if this does not fail it will be remembered in history as genocide and injustice !
So where is Islam and democracy here ?
Instead of blaming Indians or Israel or USA, Pakistan's political elite needs to analyse its policies in Balochistan.
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