Compressed under the rising demands of the New Great Game, players in the region want to have an open corridor, particularly for oil and gas exploits from Central Independent States to the warm waters of Arabian Sea. Former President Pervez Musharraf hastily followed in the footsteps of his predecessors but his desperate moves failed to yield the desired results. In fact, it splintered further, the damaged internal cohesion of the country, especially at a juncture when the separatist tendencies emerging as never before.  This at a time when neighboring Iran, located at the high elevation is allergic to any oil and gas exploitation in Balochistan and growing American influence is supplementing its insecurities.

The Baloch are known for their elephantine memory. Their regret in joining Pakistan and the separatist feelings are deep rooted. These have ignited repeatedly since the early years of the country. History records that in 1963, President General Ayub tried to crush Sher Muhammad Marri’s resistance against military operation by bulldozing almond gardens spread over 13,000 acres in Marri territory and uprooted trees in order to break the economic strength of Marri tribes, which consequently sparked an insurgency in 1964. The country’s first democratic leader Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto launched a full-scale military operation in Balochistan in the 1970s.  

Comparatively calm times were witnessed in Balochistan in the decades of the 80s and 90s. During the 80s General Zia was too busy in the ‘Afghan Jihad’ project while the successive governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were engaged in power struggle and infighting. However, Sharif did bite the then Balochistan Chief Minister Akhtar Mengal when the latter retaliated over the issue of keeping him in the dark on detonating a nuclear device in Chagi in 1998, and its reported affects on some people in the area. Interestingly, in an attempt to gain mileage out of the prevailing bitterness in Balochistan, Nawaz Sharif stated in a recent meeting with the heirs of Nawab Bugti in Quetta that the people of Balochistan have full right over the profits of their natural gas exploits.

Unfortunately, the blunt policies of such rough riders were a step ahead from each other. Nawab Bugti was killed a couple of years ago in an encounter with the troops after he was cornered to a point-of-no-return.

A session of the Senate also voiced the situation in Balochistan as an alarming. In this context within the Pakistani polity where building trust is essential to any kind of relationship or business, trust is not only the missing link but still needs to be considered more seriously and addressed urgently, if Balochistan has to continue to be part of the whole Pakistani mosaic.

So far, the Baloch demand for constitutional change regarding natural resources exploitation has been disregarded by the government merely on the pretext that the tribal chiefs would use the money for personal gains and not for the development and improving the standard of living of the people of Balochistan. The counter argument to this is the question of how much successive governments have so far achieved in improving the lives of Baloch people in real terms, especially in the rural areas?

Another question that looms large, is whether the present government’s policy of reconciliation and President Asif Ali Zardari’s verbal apology that he offered to Baloch people and the “Balochistan Package” would contribute to win the trust in Balochistan? Or whether extra efforts are needed for damage control and consistent administrative and political blunders committed during the past six decades have to be brought to a permanent halt.

The tug-of-war seems to be between the apparent fixed mindset of the military bureaucracy having a track record of inflexibility and the rather exhibited recessive tendencies of the democratic civilian government, which in practical terms does not seem to be able to prevail over the former.    

The government talks about building the trust to extinguish the inferno of deprivation and resentment in Balochistan. However, it must be able to address the key issue of making a constitutional amendment that guarantees a better share in the exploitation of natural resources and the development along the coastal areas of the province, minus that no ice would melt.   

Unlike Pushtuns, the Baloch are traditionalists and not fundamentalists. After the hue and cry about the “Quetta Shura” and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Balochistan (TTB) whether or it’s true or not, one thing is for sure that discontent and deprivation breed extremism and radicalization, both ideological and faith based. Membership with “Taliban” groups gives a sense of empowerment and status in a highly tribalized society where an ordinary citizen, particularly that of a “small province” has “no say.” This recognition generates a sense of belonging.

The given domestic, regional and global scenarios require an internal change in Baloch society rather than suppressing or diverting the problem. There is an urgent need to deal with the trust deficit issue that exists between Islamabad and Balochistan. The resources under the lands are there and will remain there for centuries to come, but we might not be the people to benefit from it, if the same hasty and blunt approach would continue. Either us or our grand children or even people from far away lands might be the beneficiaries of the heavenly gifts of natural resources, if an immediate major policy change is not made now.