Balochistan's woes

The Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Jan Mohammad Jamali, cautioned about the possibility of Balochistan "fast slipping out of the hands". He warned on the floor of the House that one day he might have to obtain a passport to visit Jacobabad, hometown of the Senate Chairman, as for the first time in the history of the country the province did not have adequate resources even to table a budget that may be no better than the paper it was written on.
Jamali stated that the Balochistan Chief Minister was in the capital along with 12 other ministers to 'beg for money in order to make the budget.' There is no doubt that serious challenges with respect to Balochistan persist in spite of the public apology to the Baloch people tendered by Asif Zardari, Co-Chairman of the PPP, soon after the 18th February elections.
While cases have been withdrawn against the Baloch leader Akhtar Mengal and an All Parties Conference will be convened to deal with all issues - political as well as economic - pertaining to the province, yet these reconciliatory gestures have not appeased nationalist forces. Numerous missing people, reportedly whisked away by intelligence agencies, continue to haunt the Baloch consciousness.
There is also a need to revisit the rationale behind the army stationed in the province as that is further alienating large packets of the Baloch population. And the number of people displaced by army operations in the province numbering in thousands need to be rehabilitated as soon as possible.
On the economic front, there remains a difference of opinion between the Centre and the province with respect to the ownership of the resources that Balochistan is so rich in. The Baloch regard natural resources mined within the province as exclusively their property, while the Centre has invariably considered it a resource to be used by the entire country.
The Centre also argues that per capita outlay for providing basic physical and social infrastructure to the land-wise sparsely populated largest Pakistani province is the highest amongst the four provinces. This renders many a development project economically unfeasible. In addition, the law and order problems have militated against mobilisation of revenue by the provincial authorities - an element not relevant to the other provinces, which makes for heavy reliance on the Centre.
Whatever the economic and political concerns faced by Balochistan and the Centre, the fact remains that it is incumbent on the elected government to resolve these issues speedily.
While no one denies that the government is at present embroiled in other simmering matters like the fate of President Musharraf and the judges 'deposed' in the wake of November 3 emergency, yet the fact remains that the issues surrounding Balochistan are assuming critical importance and must no longer be delegated to a second tier of relevance.
Cognisant of the gravity of the situation, the Prime Minister took immediate remedial measures to resolve the economic issues surrounding the inability of the province to announce a budget.
The money allocated to the province on an emergency basis is as follows: 3 billion rupees special grant from the Prime Minister's discretionary fund; clearing 3 billion rupees with the Oil and Gas Development Company; 640 million rupees allocated last week by the Prime Minister for electrification of Noshki and Dalbandin; and 700 million rupees for supply of gas to Sohrab and Noshki. This amount is in addition to the 26 billion rupees to be allocated to Balochistan by the federal government and another 42 billion rupees for PSDP in the province.
The Prime Minister also revealed that four out of five new dams proposed to be built in the country through international assistance will be located in Balochistan.
The Prime Minister established a committee to be headed by Law Minister Farooq Naek to look into the matter of Balochistan's share of royalties and development surcharge. This is certainly a start; however one would hope that the Prime Minister remains engaged in the process to ensure that a crisis doesn't reemerge either in the Centre's economic or political relations with the province.