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| India-Pakistan |
| Pak's Vietnam |
| 2006-01-06 |
| Pak's Vietnam By Samuel Baid Pakistan's largest, but least populated, province of Baluchistan has much in common with the fate of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan has kept in subjugation since 1947 without giving its people civil rights or letting them have a national identity. Pakistan calls the Gilgit-Baltistan region its Northern Areas but flatly disowns it when courts, including the Supreme Court, ask why the local people are not given their rights. True, Gilgit-Baltistan has not been shown as Pakistan's territory in the country's successive Constitutions and its areas. But Pakistan treats it as a colony, or worse. Islamabad controls its economy, natural wealth and all spheres of life. One difference between Baluchistan and Gilgit-Baltistan is that while the former was annexed by Pakistan through persuasion and massive land and air military action in 1948, the Gilgit Scouts had revolted against Maharaja Hari Singh's rule under the instigation of the British and freed the present Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 1, 1947, and handed it over to Pakistan for temporary administration. According to the 1993 order of the High Court of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, his arrangement became defunct after the promulgation of the 1974 Provisional Constitution. Accordingly, the administration of this region was ordered to be handed over to POK or "Azad" Kashmir, as Pakistan calls it. Within less than 18 months, the High Court's order was vacated by the POK Supreme Court in an appeal filed by Islamabad. In Baluchistan, the Khan of Kalat was forced at a darbar held in Sibi in 1948 to accede to Pakistan along with states of Mekran, Kharan and Lasbela. These four states were merged into a Baluchistan States Union of which the Khan of Kalat was made the Khan-e-Azam. The other part of Baluchistan, called British Baluchistan, was controlled by the then Governor-General, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, through an agent who was only answerable to him and not to the Cabinet. Jinnah's presence at the Sibi darbar helped the agreement with the Khan of Kalat but his (Jinnah's) death later in the same year left the work half-done. In other words, Baluchistan's annexation was complete but its assimilation into Pakistan had not started because the post-Jinnah Muslim League leadership was devoid of a national vision and too preoccupied with petty intrigues. The Khan of Kalat had become impatient and when Pakistan was moving towards the military rule through a maze of political crises, he revolted against Pakistan saying he had been put under unfair pressure and misled at the 1948 Sibi talks. Khan surrendered after a military action. He might have been encouraged to raise the banner of revolt by bitter protests that were raging through Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) against the imposition of the "One Unit" scheme that joined Sindh, Baluchistan, NWFP and Punjab into one province named West Pakistan. On the one hand, this scheme tried to rub off cultural and linguistic identities of constituent provinces of West Pakistan and on the other, it snatched away their right to the natural wealth of their respective provinces. To the people of Baluchistan, it does not matter whether Pakistan has a military or civilian government. Either way, they are treated as a conquered people who cannot claim equal rights, human rights or right to the natural wealth of their province. Like Gilgit-Baltistan, Baluchistan is low priority for the national media. Their grievances, deprivations, injustices and suppression of rights are blacked out or played down. They are suddenly reported by the media when the locals' protests became violent and the military action takes place. To the common man in Punjab, these are law and order problem regions where Army action is justifiable. The British treated the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as criminal brutes and dealt with them with an inhuman law called Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). Pakistan, too, dealt with these people with FCR until Bhutto abolished it. Unlike Gilgit-Baltistan, Baluchistan has a provincial Assembly and elects its representatives to parliament. But Baluch cannot use these representative forums to effectively air their grievances. This is sad that the people get idea about the problem of Baluchistan only when the Army starts a crackdown to suppress their protests. Gilgit-Baltistan has so-called Northern Council, which had its first political party-based elections in October 1994. The next elections took place in November 1999. But every time the Pakistan-based parties - the PPP and the Muslim League - emerged as the main parties. Though this council is called a legislative body, it cannot legislate and its members do not freely debate the problems of their areas because of the fear of intelligence men. Moreover, the Chief Executive is not a local person, but Pakistan's Minister of Kashmir Affairs. This region, too, comes into news when the locals' protests are met with the Army's might. Both regions have a high rate of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment among young people. (The writer is Director, Institute for Media Studies & Information Technology, YMCA, New Delhi & formerly Editor, UNI) |
| Posted by:john |