Seriously, can we do anything at all?
Yes? HOW?!
NO? WHY?!

While the govt. has much to answer for in Baluchistan, the tribal leaders have made sure that no progress takes place in Baluchistan. The Bugti tribe extracts a massive amount from the govt. for the Sui gas field, and not one rupee have they spent on their own people. Ayways, I’ll make a long post later.

while sounding a bit naive… I wish that their was an element in Pakistani politics that could rally against the ghunda gardi of the Army without turning these outrages into a ethno-regional issues. the bugti’s are not interested in bettering the lot of poor Baluchi’s just like Punjabi dominated Army is not interested in the rights of Punjabi farmers in Okara.

Answering a question on frequent intertribal marriages between the elites of mazaris and bugtis even though hundreds have died in the ongoing conflict between the two tribes,he merely dismisses the whole issue:yeh sub to chalta hai.

It is common knowledge that Bugti gets immense share out of Sui fields(which i think he has never denied).While he drools for more he is cleverly manipulating the whole situation to not only pressurize the government into giving in to his demands but also score a political point with his people.In the end would the masses get anything?That is anybody’s guess.The resources belong to the Balochis,but posssibility of benefitting from them remains thin until they have sardars on their heads.

In such situations you can never discern who is right and who is wrong but sardars are no less to blame.They exercise and maintain tight control over masses by keeping them illiterate,powerless and deprived.You just have to see Bugti in the interview.Watch his body langusge and that of the people around him.You’ll get my point.

btw, you have an AMAZING blog.

ISLAMABAD (January 21 2005): First cousin of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Mir Ahmadan Rahija Bugti has said that Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti is against the development of Balochistan and wants to keep the people of the province backward. Talking to PTV, he said the Nawab has nothing to do with protecting the rights of Baloch people.

“He is out to usurp them.” “Nawab Akbar created all type of hurdles in development work of the province,” he said, adding, “he (Akbar Bugti) is against development by not allowing opening of schools, building of roads, hospitals etc as they would bring change and take the people out of his influence.” After becoming educated, the people of the area would refuse to live under his rule, he added.

He said: “The people want development, progress and prosperity in the province but a few elements are working against it.”

To a question he said even his own tribesmen are suffering his wrath and a number of them have been ejected from their houses and are forced to live in his private prison. He said prominent among the prisoners is former member of Majlis-e-Shoora, Mir Ghulam Qadir Khan Bugti. Replying to another question about setting up of army cantonments in Balochistan, he said, “these are being built by Pakistani forces and not by the enemy forces.”

He said the development projects being carried out in the province will bring prosperity by giving them employment and alleviate poverty. He said: “The Nawab is against awareness among the masses, while his own children roam about in Pajeros and are educated.”

The chieftain of Kalpar tribe, Khan Mohammad Bugti, in his interview with PTV said that 16 Kalpar men, including his son and his son-in-law, were killed in the bombardment of Kalpar houses. He said their houses were demolished and the tribe was sent in exile by Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti. He said, “the produce of Kalpar lands is being used by the Nawab.”

Ghulam Qadir Khan Bugti, chief of another clan of Bugtis, who is now being held in the personal prison of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in an interview recorded before he was taken prisoner, termed the Sardari Nizam the main cause of backwardness of the Baloch people. He said the areas under chieftains had remained most backward. He said Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti is against the development of the area.

Ghulam Qadir said he had worked for the welfare of people by setting up schools and dams but the Nawab took it ill as it could bring development and awareness among the masses.

He said Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti forced the companies to pay him the royalty, which is not used for economic welfare of the people.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005

Unfortunately, the history books for the masses shroud the fact that Pakistan occupied Balochistan. But, in military and civil services schools across Pakistan, they probably teach every officer not to trust a Baloch (as apparent from their apathy towards Balochistan). The personnel of the armed forces and the bureaucracy know it very well that the Baloch nation will rise again and demand their freedom if their area was developed and their people were educated. Hence, throughout the period of its occupation of Balochistan, Pakistani governments (both civil and military) have treated it as an occupied territory and usurped its resources to benefit all of Pakistan (excluding Balochistan, of course).

This ìRape of Balochistanî by Pakistan shall not last forever. Although we have been patient over the years about the plight of Baloch nation under the plundering Pakistani rule, the gang rape of our lady guest by members of the Pakistani rulers disregard all norms of decency in our Baloch culture. Therefore, it is our cultural norm to rise in unison against tyranny. The current political turmoil in Balochistan was a result of cultural clash, which has now escalated into a war for our freedom.

The rule of governance in Balochistan may favor the Sardari Nizaam, which is suitable to our culture and have served our peopleís needs over centuries. To date, the ground reality is that we have not found any substitute to this governing method which resolves our peopleís grievances in an expeditious and equitable manner. If, at any time, we the Baloch people find the Sardari Nizaam obsolete, we shall practice a new method of governance of our choice.

Although we have been defeated in the past and may be defeated again, but we will never stop dreaming about being ìfreeî. To restore our freedom, we, the Baloch, fought four (4) wars with Pakistan since the occupation of our country; and each time, due to lack of resources, we lost, but we have NOT surrendered yet. And, to remind all concerned, we have great hope to have our own country where we could practice political freedom and be considered first-class citizens again. So, any Baloch who has an iota of pride in his/her ethnicity will strive for the freedom of the Baloch nation, no matter how much blood is shed or how long it might take to achieve our goal.

As far as ìhistory lessonsî are concerned, it would be naÔve to think that the answer to the current crisis does not lie in the past; all great nations learn from their history so they can chart their future. Furthermore, those who are ignorant or choose to remain ignorant of the ground realities in Balochistan should visit remote areas of this vast land to fathom the deprivation inflicted by the tyrannical Pakistani government on the Baloch nation for more than 57 years.

The so-called ìthought provoking questionî about the remuneration to Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti is: the amount is pittance compared to the financial plundering of Balochistan by the Pakistani government. Nawab sahib has openly declared his financial records for the public to view, and various media have already published it. In my opinion, itís frivolous to even bring such an argument to this discussion.

The international media may condemn Balochistan to be Barbaric, but it is our way of life and we accept responsibility for how we behave in our cultural context. The correlation between Barbarism and Sardari Nizaam is just heresy since there were no sociological research done to prove it. The truth of the matter is that the Pakistani government abstained from developing Balochistan since its occupation. Hence, the Sardari Nizaam remains, until the Baloch public decides that itís obsolete. Someone who has not lived in Balochistan may not understand the intricacies of the Sardari Nizaam, and therefore, are not knowledgeable enough to argue. (By the way, Iím not from any tribal chieftainís family.)

To ìclean Pakistanís slateî is just a statement that lacks workable solutions on how to resolve it. But, Iím least concerned what happens to Pakistan. My main concern is to clean Balochistanís slate. We need to be FREE again from the clutches of the Pakistani Raj. We are an oppressed nation just like the Palestinians, Kurds, Achaeans, Kashmiris, and Chechens, who dream of one day living in their own country, and therefore, they are fighting for their freedom. We, the Baloch nation, have chosen the path of being free than being slaves of Pakistan.

Tipu Sultan once said: ìA day in the life of a lion is better than thousand days in the life of a foxî.

1. Zain is perplexed that since ìwomen are raped almost everyday in Pakistanî, why the Baloch have taken the rape of a woman in Balochistan by an official of the Pakistani government out of context and used it as a ìcatalyst for barbaric violence and attacks on government installations, officials and civiliansî. The reason for such a harsh reaction from the Baloch is that we belong to the Middle Eastern culture, not the South Asian culture to which most Pakistanis belong. Rape in the Baloch culture is considered one of the most despicable acts and not taken lightly; therefore, it becomes a matter of pride for us to make sure that the rapist is punished. Unfortunately, the Pakistani government has yet to arrest the main culprits to the crime! The apathy of the Pakistani government to tackle this issue is the ìcatalystî of the present crisis, not the respected lady doctorís rape.

2. I agree with Zain regarding the complete political, economic, cultural, military, linguistic autonomy for Balochistan. Since we are not a part of Pakistan and are only an occupied territory, it is understandable that the Pakistani government has given us the ìshort end of the stick in resource and revenue distributionî. However, I certainly disagree with him that such autonomy should be obtained through political struggle rather than through violence. We have, in the past, tried the political struggle route, but to no avail; our political leaders were jailed and many were executed for resorting to political struggle. So, we are now compelled by the Pakistani government to use violence to get our point across.

3. Baloch freedom fighters are not ìmischief-makersî; they are Baloch soldiers who have committed to sacrifice their lives to free the Baloch nation. We are at war with Pakistan, and we are fighting to reclaim the freedom of our people and our motherland. But, since we only have a rag-tag army, we are not in a position to enter into a head-on collision with the well-equipped Pakistani military force. Hence, we are fighting a guerrilla war until we succeed in gaining our freedom. We really donít care if we ìare going to be cast in the light of fundamentalists and terroristsî. We know that we are struggling for our Freedom, and we believe that truth will prevail.

4. Zain may be correct in his analysis of Pakistani politicians (I would include bureaucrats and businessmen too) making an art of false declaration of their assets. Personally, I have not audited Nawab Akbar Bugtiís financial account, but I could say that Pakistani governmentís claim that it has compensated 6 to 12 crore rupees to Nawab sahib is definitely pittance compared to the amount usurped from extracting natural gas from Sui area.

5. Sardari Nizaam in a tribal context is not the reason for the backwardness of societies. The Sheiks of various Emirates of UAE govern in a similar fashion as the Sardars of Balochistan. Are these Emirates backward because they are being ruled by their version of Sardars? Of course not. The correlation between backwardness and Sardari Nizaam is simply an oddity, and it doesnít ìestablish a very strong relationshipî. Could corruption by Pakistani government officials be the reason for underdevelopment? Numerous studies were done worldwide which prove that the level of corruption is proportional to underdevelopment.

6. My support for the Sardari Nizaam is support for our way of life in Balochistan. If a foreigner like Zain considers such support for being subject to a Monarch, so be it. But, when Balochistan is finally free from the tyrannical clutches of the Pakistani Raj, then we, the Baloch, have a choice to either continue with the Sardari Nizaam or chose another system of governance.

I dream that one day, Balochistan will be free. Mir Chakar Khan Rindís portrait will be on our currency note. Our red, green, blue flag with star will mast on every government building. We will practice a form of government that will suit the Baloch culture. Khan of Kalat will be our Monarch (just like the Queen of England). We will have a Baloch police force as well as our own military forces. We will have a seat at the United Nations and have diplomatic relations with governments of foreign countries, including Israel. We will have a secular government and no one will persecute our Zikri Baloch brothers for being non-Muslims. We will establish close relations with our kins in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Kurdistan, Kuwait, Oman, Turkmenistan, and UAE. Balochi will be our official language and our schools will teach history of the Baloch to our children. Revenue from our natural resources, taxes and strategic business development will sustain our country. I hope that my dream comes true with minimal loss of Baloch lives at the hand of the ruthless Pakistani Raj.

1. I really do not see how you can justify violence of the sort that is being perpetrated by these thugs and their Nawab overlords on the basis of a rape. Their is NO justification for their act. Your implication that only the Baloch take the rape of a woman seriously is preposterous. You defend a tribal system that treats women like dirt and confines them Taliban style and yet you have the gall to claim that the heavens have fallen because a woman was raped.

2. Call a spade a spade. As you yourself mention that the ragtag band of mischief makers has no chance of standing up to the Pakistani army so they are going to continue to conduct guerrila style attacks. Wonderful. All they are doing is making the life of Balochis miserable by severing power and communication links. A recent news article talked of the farmers association in Balochistan pleading to these terrorists to stop their attacks since they are making life horrible for the very Balochis they claim to be fighting for. Yet you claim that this will win freedom. I must say that you should dig your head out of the hole you have it buried in. You claim that your political leaders were jailed and many were killed for political struggle. Please explain to me how on earth a violent struggle is not going to bring a worse response from the powers that be you claim delight in destroying the Baloch nation.

3. The truth will never prevail if this ragtag army is deemed a terrorist group by the international community. The pakistani government has already linked them to the Taliban and alqaeda and informed the U.S and other governments that 500 million rupees worth of weapons have been smuggled into Balochistan by terrorist groups linked to the above mentioned. The world has increasingly rejected the idea of violence as a means to an end and attacks on government installations and civillians will rightfully continue to be labeled as terrorism.

4. I am flabbergasted that someone who is quite obviously an educated person can support a monarchy. You talk of learning lessons from history. Surely you must realize that one or two good rulers does not mean that the whole line of kings is going to be as good as their predecessors. How many times have we seen in history that an empire built up by an emperor crumbled as those who came after him had neither his wisdom nor cared for the subjects they ruled.
The monarchies in the Arab world are already being criticized. Saudi Arabia is holding its first national elections. The rule of Kings, Sultans, Nawabs, and Sardars should be relegate d to the dustbin of history where it belongs.

My dream is that one day people will resolve issues through discourse rather violence in our country, and we will have a true sense of democracy. No system of government is perfect; but to have the choice to remove a government that does not fulfil its promises is a right everyone should have. Democracy for Pakistan and may all Pakistanis (Balochis included) adopt Buddhism, if need be, to learn the virtues of peaceful discourse.