Balochistan Bells

Balochistan Bells

Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has once again placed Balochistan at the centre of the national conversation, stressing the province’s permanent bond with Pakistan, the promise of its youth and the danger posed by foreign-backed militancy. The remarks become all the more important considering how Balochistan today sits at the intersection of Pakistan’s hardest security challenge and some of its largest economic ambitions. The question, however, remains whether the state can convert its military resilience into political confidence and economic ownership.

That Baloch youth do not lack talent cannot be stressed enough, but neither can the fact that they lack pathways into the economy and the state. Education, technical training, local hiring, business credit and a visible share in major projects should not and cannot remain peripheral to policy. Development is both a constitutional obligation and a strategic necessity.

At the same time, grievance cannot become a euphemism for terrorism. Groups that pull passengers from buses, murder labourers, attack policemen and soldiers and sabotage infrastructure are not advancing Baloch rights. They are shrinking the very economic space in which those rights can acquire substance. Political grievances belong in politics. The army and law-enforcement agencies are therefore performing the indispensable function of preserving the security without which politics, investment and ordinary life become impossible.South Asians & Diaspora

Nor is foreign sponsorship somehow disproved by the existence of local discontent. External actors rarely need to invent fault lines as they exploit those already available. Balochistan’s coastline, minerals, borders and role in regional connectivity give Pakistan’s adversaries obvious incentives to keep the province unstable.

But this is precisely why the state must examine its own vulnerabilities. Too much of Balochistan’s deprivation is also the product of weak provincial governance, patronage, elite capture and development spending that does not reach the citizen. It is convenient to blame Islamabad for every failure, just as it is convenient to blame every grievance on foreign manipulation. Neither explanation, on its own, is sufficient.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, these pages must once again remind those at the helm that the real test begins after a security operation succeeds. The army can clear territory and dismantle networks but civilian institutions must then fill that space with courts, schools, policing, health services and accountable local government. Otherwise, tactical victories remain vulnerable to political relapse.History

Balochistan’s resources can enrich Pakistan, but they must also visibly enrich Balochistan. 

SOURCE: https://dailytimes.com.pk/1541975/balochistan-bells/