pakistani colonialists have devastated balochistan
Satish Kumar
Resident netizen Muhammad Javed Zball (nee Ekball) is all worked up
about Palestine, Iraq and Kashmir. How come he never writes about
Balochistan where Pakistan has brought havoc and disaster since
Jinnah's army forcibly took over the territory? But what else can one
expect from Zball who has no shame about the 1971 genocide in East
Pakistan that saw the murder of 3 million Bengalis and the rape of a
quarter million women. Zball adds insult to the injury by calling
Bengali traitors and blaming the victims of genocide for their trauma.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
analysis: Balochistan: Ground Zero —Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
Figures prove that Balochistan has perpetually suffered from neglect
and wilful attempts to keep it in a state of deprivation. Blaming
Sardars for obstructing development cuts no ice because the areas
under the government’s writ haven’t prospered either
Balochistan is virtually ‘Ground Zero’ because the political, social,
economic and military policies there since partition have created an
effect more akin to devastation by nuclear bombs and presents a
picture of utter desolation and desperation, whereby the people have
lost hope and resorted to use of means other than political. The ever-
simmering insurgency is the direct consequence of the level of
economic deprivation and the oppressive conditions obtaining today in
Balochistan. Economic exploitation, unbridled use of force in frequent
military operations and the ever-increasing number of missing persons
have resulted in unparalleled misery for the people.
A word of caution for this piece: loads of data tend to obscure human
suffering. Engrossed with figures, readers lose track of the primary
object. To avoid this pitfall, it is essential to keep one’s blessings
and others’ deprivation in perspective all the time. To present the
grim reality of economic deprivation and poverty, I quote credible
experts and reports. Syed Fazl-e-Haider, a respected developmental
analyst, says, “Poverty is a multi-dimensional concept rather than
simple income (consumption) deprivation. Any single measure of
poverty, such as head-count ratio based on specific ‘poverty line’
does not fully capture all its dimensions and does not reflect the
real causes of wider human sufferings. ‘Poverty of opportunity’ index,
a composite of deprivation in three vital dimensions — health,
education and income — is quite useful in this regard. In case of
Balochistan, any single measure indicates that it is the poorest
province.”
Further highlighting the neglect he says, “Balochistan remains almost
voiceless, having no say in the decision-making process at the centre.
Over 50 percent of its population subsists below the poverty line.
Income-based inequities in human development need to be addressed.
During fiscal year (FY) 2000-2001, only 9.2 percent of the total
Khushhal Pakistan programme budget had been allocated to the province
compared to 16.2 percent for the NWFP, 19.7 percent for Sindh, and
48.9 percent for Punjab. During the first year of the programme,
utilisation as a percentage of the budgeted amount was the lowest for
the province at 2.8 percent compared to 7.7 percent in NWFP, 8.2
percent in Sindh, and 19 percent in Punjab.
“In the FY 2004, the federal contribution to the provincial
development programmes was 56 percent for NWFP, 28 percent for Punjab,
19 percent for Sindh and only eight percent for Balochistan. The share
allocated in foreign project assistance (FPA) to Punjab was 53
percent, NWFP 29 percent, Sindh 12 percent and again only six percent
for Balochistan.”
The table of ‘Districts Showing Decline in Index of Multiple
Deprivation of More than 10 Points’ in Research Report No.72 by Social
Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) for comparing1998 to 2005 tells
that there was not a single district from Balochistan showing decline
while there were three from Punjab, five from Sindh and seven from the
NWFP.
Moreover, in the table ‘The Ten Highest Deprived Districts of
Pakistan’, nine were from Balochistan and it emerges as the most
deprived province with over 91 percent of population residing in high-
deprived districts during 2005. It shows that in 1998 the percentage
of population living in a high degree of deprivation was 25 percent in
Punjab, 23 percent in urban Sindh, 49 percent in rural Sindh, 51
percent in NWFP, and 88 percent in Balochistan. In 2005, the figures
were: Punjab 28, Sindh 35, NWFP 35 and Balochistan 91, showing that
Balochistan is in a consistent nose-dive. The report adds, per annum
declining rate of deprivation is the lowest in Balochistan; it has the
weakest long-term growth performance. From 1972-73 to 2004-05, the
economy expanded 2.7 times in Balochistan, 3.6 times in NWFP and
Sindh, and 4.0 times in Punjab. The growth divergence has widened
historic income differences and Balochistan’s per capita income level
of $400 in 2004 was only two-thirds of Pakistan’s national level.
Perhaps, with the sole exception of the area in and around Quetta,
social deprivation is widespread in all districts of Balochistan. As
expected, in terms of level of deprivation during 2005, Punjab
possesses the lowest, while Balochistan has the highest magnitude of
Index of Multiple Deprivation. A horrific picture emerges if one
surveys the maternal mortality rate, which is 650 per 100,000 births
in Balochistan while it is 281in Karachi. This is double the national
average. Infant mortality in Balochistan is 158 deaths per 1,000 live
births. Even Democratic Republic of Congo’s average of 126 is lower
while Pakistan’s national average of 70 is less than half.
Similarly, Balochistan accounted for seven out of the nine districts
with the lowest full immunisation rate, including the four districts
with the worst record. Balochistan’s performance would look even worse
without the exclusion of Dera Bugti and Kohlu in the Pakistan Social
and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) sample due to security
reasons. Only 20 percent of its people have an access to safe drinking
water compared to 86 percent in the rest of Pakistan. Village
electrification is only 25 percent compared to 75 percent in the rest
of the country. The education sector figures are depressing too.
Access to education is also far below the ratio of other provinces.
Over three-fourths of women and two-thirds of the population above ten
are illiterate. The conditions in the insurgency-affected Marri-Bugti
areas and among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are much
worse. With regard to net primary enrolment, 11 out of the 16
districts, including the four districts with the worst record, in
2004-05 belonged to Balochistan. These figures prove that Balochistan
has perpetually suffered from neglect and wilful attempts to keep it
in a state of deprivation. Blaming Sardars for obstructing development
cuts no ice because the areas under the government’s writ haven’t
prospered either. Take the example of Bugti area. Though gas was
discovered in Sui in 1951, meets approximately 45 percent of
Pakistan’s total needs and is worth Rs 85 billion annually, yet what
Dera Bugti receives in return for the wealth it generates is evident
from the UNDP Human Development Report 2003, which ranked Dera Bugti
last among the 91 districts on the Human Development Index.
Matters haven’t improved with the emergence of the democratic set-up.
There has been, however, a glut of promises and packages, which cannot
and have not healed the wounds caused by decades of brutality and
neglect. The missing are still missing, even those who went missing
recently like Murad Khan Marri, picked up in Hub, and Abdul Rahim
Qalandarani Marri from Quetta.
Balochistan is in fact a lot poorer than the statistics show. Little
wonder, then, that there is intense and sustained resentment and
bitterness which simply refuses to die down in the face of the make-
shift and half-baked palliative measures that are announced now and
then to defuse the prevailing insurgency and the increasing calls for
independence.
The problem is not just an economic one but in fact essentially a
political one, which cannot be resolved either by force or by mega-
projects. It should be understood that the nationalists do not just
demand their rights over resources but, more importantly, demand the
absolute right to decide their fate regarding their political and
economic matters.
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