Balochistan In A Federation
An Excerpt from Air Marshall (R) Asghar Khan's book
PART - 1
An Excerpt from Air Marshall (R) Asghar Khan's book
PART - 1
Of the four provinces of Pakistan, Balochistan has a special geographical and historical position. Because of it,s location it has been isolated culturally, socially and economically within the areas that constitute Pakistan today. It,s location and history give it a distinctive character and position, an understanding of which is essential for a realistic appreciation of the federal character of the state. The Punjab, even when it was not the largest province of Pakistan, enjoyed power and influence far more than its size and population would have justified. The fact that the armed forces were largely from this province and that they had begun to exercise political power further reduced the political influences of the other provinces, including the majority province of East Pakistan. Of the four remaining provinces of Pakistan, each has a distinctive character. The years since Partition have, to some extent, changed the situation, and the NWFP and the Punjab have come closer economically and politically. This interaction these two provinces is greater than that between Punjab and Sindh, or between the Punjab and Balochistan. In fact, the sense of alienation could be said to be greater between the Punjab and the other two provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. Each has it,s own history and culture, and deserves an understanding of its historical background and political individuality.
With an area of 134,000 square miles, roughly about 40 percent of the total area of the country, Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan,s four provinces. Its area and population are comparable to those of Norway. It is known to have unexplored mineral resources of copper, flourite, limestone and oil. It is estimated that known gold deposits in Balochistan exceed the value of twelve billion dollars, and the proven iron-ore deposits are in excess of twenty three million tons. It has the reserves to expand considerably its existing production of natural gas, coal, limestone, magnelite, marble, sulphur and barite. Balochistan has a coastline of 750 miles. Its port of Gawadar which, because of Chinese help in its development, has acquired greater importance, is barely some 250 miles from the Straits of Hormuz, the focal point in the oil route from the persian gulf to Western Europe and the East. Its frontiers in the north and west border on Afghanistan and Iran, which have Baloch populations of 100,000 and 1,000,000 respectively.
The province of Balochistan has three broad ethnic groups, which differ racially and linguistically. The pashtun, who are about a third of the population, are racially and linguistically akin to the people of NWFP and eastern Afghanistan. The Punjabi settlers, who are of relatively recent domicile, numberless than 5 percent of the population of the province. Both the Pashtun and Punjabis are relatively more prosperous than the Baloch and have proportionally greater representation in lucrative jobs in Balochistan. The Baloch are a collection of some 500 tribes and clans who have lived in these parts for almost 2000 years. These are carious theories about their origin. The one which is widely held is that they were living on the southern coast of the Caspian sea at the time of Christ. There is evidence to suggest that the Balochi language is derived from alost language which flourished in the Caspian area in the pre-christian era. It is closely related to the Kurdish language in the area south of the Caspian, at the conflux of Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Another theory of relatively recent origin is that they are of Semitic origin and came from Aleppo in present day Syria.
