Education city in Balochistan

The relative economic backwardness of Balochistan can be blamed on a variety of causes, but the one that stands out as the most crucial has been its generally underfinanced and poorly-managed educational system. Of course the rich and the powerful send their children to a few good schools in the province and other places, but the majority doesn't have that option available.
No doubt, such a disparity tends to breed a sense of discrimination among the under-privileged, leading to social unrest, especially in a feudalistic environment where finer education adds to the empowerment of the rich and the mighty. Naturally, with majority of the people not being exposed to modern education, the much-awaited change in Balochistan is slow in coming. The recent spree of targeted killing of educationists - most of them were victimised for their ethnic origin - has added to this dilemma. Viewed against this backdrop, Army Chief General Kayani's decision to convert the Sui Cantonment into a Military College is highly appreciable. To be the third Military College in the country, the newly established institution is being geared to train some 12,000 boys of the province for induction into Pakistan's armed forces - dramatically increasing the Baloch youth's stakes in national security.
But even more importantly, the move to dismantle and remove a cantonment from the politically sensitive area like the Bugti-Kohlu salient and dedicate the property to an educational mission speaks of a change in the mindset that has so often interpreted, wrongly, Baloch nationalism as a threat to national security. No other segment of Pakistani society has been stigmatised, again wrongly, with negative politics as the people of Balochistan. Sadly enough, over all these years, the province of Balochistan has been victimised by the federal overlords, be they army generals or elected leaders.
However, the worst came in 2006, when an iconic Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, was killed in circumstances that till to-date remain unexplained. General Kayani has tried to turn a page of that painful history by turning the army cantonment into a military college and promising massive induction of Baloch youth into the armed forces of Pakistan. We are impressed by this change of the mindset. His inference that 'an educated and prosperous Balochistan guarantees a strong and stable Pakistan' adequately proves that the Establishment has realised that its policy to treat Balochistan as a security-risk proposition was misplaced and outlandish. In fact, one may say, that the security-specific management of Balochistan is very provocative and a major cause for the ongoing low-intensity insurgency in Balochistan.
But as they say, one swallow doesn't make a summer; much more in terms of economic development, better governance and socio-cultural mainstreaming of the Baloch segment of Pakistani society needs to be done. Then there are serious grievances, including the nonchalant bureaucratic attitude towards the burning issue of forced disappearances that has to be addressed. In this age time, keeping people in dungeons unheard of, is no more possible; if the missing persons are guilty of some crime they must be charged and produced before the courts.
The concept that national security is more sacrosanct than the right of freedom is no more tenable. No wonder, Governor Zulfikar Magsi took up the issue of missing persons with the Army Chief at the function, seeking its urgent resolution. Equally critical issue is that if targeted killing, along ethnic and sectarian lines, which remains largely unchecked, undermining socio-cultural harmony with critical losses to the education sector, as teachers are more frequent victims. Probably, the provincial government needs to be more alert and vigilant. But there is a role for the federal government also and that is to walk its talk of helping Balochistan recover its inherent economic strength. The time has come that decisions that flow from the NFC Award and the 18th and 19th Constitutional Amendments are taken off the drawing board and made to work and deliver. Things must move in tandem, an achievable objective now that the military tends to look at Balochistan differently.