Volatile Balochistan
- Dr Faryal Faruk, Islamabad

CREDIT really goes to ARY’s Dr. Shahid Masood who held exclusive interviews with Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and his would-be successor Brahmadagh Bugti, who is allegedly heading the militant wing the RAW-led anti-Islamabad move.

He put trickily hard questions to the violent younger Bugti and made him confess that a number of mega projects and development works were going on in his province and that the Sardari system has posed the provincial society backwardness and social drawbacks like exchange of women as compensation to men’s crimes.

He did not altogether deny the inflow of foreign aid and weapons and showed his readiness to welcome Americans or anybody helping their ‘cause’.

This shows that the reports of the involvement of foreign hand in recent developments in Balochistan are true as well as it warns the government that the situation there is not simply bad but highly volatile.

While it demands to handle the real issue with political wisdom, it also justifies permanent presence of upgraded security and effective intelligence network to deal with foreign hand using the state elements against the integrity of the country.

The government is on one hand is tolerant to hundreds of rocket attacks and violent incidents for the purpose of resolving the crisis through political means, but on the other hand it does not seem to be successfully projecting benefits of mega projects to common people in Balochistan.

According to the Finance Ministry report, Balochistan has been given 11.7% and 12.7% PSDP share in years 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively as compared to 1.9% in 2000 and 2.7% in 1999 while Punjab was given only 7.8% in 2004, Sindh 12.8% and NWFP 5.5%.

The people like Brahamdagh Bugti need to be convinced and their apprehensions are being removed. The Baloch brothers need to be informed that Cantonments are also elsewhere in other provinces and are not meant to usurp their resources but to serve the purpose of security and defence preparedness.●

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