Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud presided over a jirga of tribal chiefs in Quetta in the first week of October. The jirga placed before the government a large number of demands, including demystification of Nawab Akber Bugti's death.
Provincial autonomy was the highlight of the charter of demands these tribal chiefs made public. Dissenting voices from among the tribal chiefs also demanded independent status for Balochistan.
The death of Nawab Akber Bughti seems to be the driving force behind this phenomenal change that fighting tribal chiefs have found it fit to bury their hatchets and think in collective interest. Some kind of unity seems to be in the offing. Has Bugti disappeared from the scene forever or he would reemerge in some other form to keep this unity intact.
The killing of Nawab Akber Bugti will be a sad story in the history books of Pakistan. There will be more than one version and more than one narrator of the conclusion of the event that had begun about two years ago in a remote area of Balochistan, rich in untapped mineral resources. Was it Bugti who went up the hill to wage a war against injustices his people were subjected to two years ago or were it the circumstances so contrived to get rid of him?
It is difficult to say that Bugti's chapter is finally closed. Who knows what is next? It may be a beginning of a new chapter, a new book or redefining of the existing geographical boundaries of the existing Balochistan. What is going to happen is uncertain and all critical examinations of the Bugti event and events that have been taking place in different parts of Balochistan for the past sixty years stop halfway, leaving many questions unanswered.
Official versions relating to factors that induced action against Bugti and his companions are being issued on a daily basis. There is no consistency in these assertions. The debate that Bugti was a terrorist and had instigated his clansmen to raise arms against the government to destabilise its control in areas of Bugti's influence is the only statement that has the official support; the others are issued to be withdrawn subsequently.
This assertion, Bugti's rebellion against the government, has many other dimensions as well, which still continue to remain undisclosed. The political parties are of the view that the government would not come out with the correct picture.
The other side of the debate is that Bugti was asking for rights of the Baloch over their 'national wealth'. He wanted provincial autonomy as was 'enshrined' in the original Pakistan Resolution so that there is an autonomous Balochistan. Bugti wanted an end to 'state terrorism' and restoration of peace in the area so that the people of Balochistan could develop and improve their lot.
His protest was against the absence of education, health, and road network, housing, potable water and few employment opportunities available only to favourites of the ruling party. Probably he was asking for basic civic amenities for the people of Balochistan and equal opportunity to progress for all.
His main objection was against the exploitation of mineral wealth and inadequate compensation to the local people who were the owners of these lands from where minerals were being extracted. His concept of compensation, as many political analysts have said, was not confined to payment of royalty to the province but went beyond that.
He was for complete control on mineral and other natural resources of the province by the people of Balochistan. He wanted development of the province in as many directions as could have been possible. He wanted to have a say in the affairs of 'the federation'.
What Bugti maintained in respect of Balochistan and its people has been interpreted in different ways by the Government of Balochistan, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and the federal government. However, they all missed the undercurrent of resentment and decided to go for cosmetic surgery of the Bugti phenomenon.
The government and Bugti were not on talking terms. There were intermediaries trying to settle terms between the government and the Baloch sardar. Were they communicating with each other honestly? is another question that is being asked. The intermediaries were political people and had their own agenda to pursue. Were they chasing the right target?
Or, they were the people who exploited both the parties. It is another question that begs an answer. How much trust Bugti had in them? Did they trust Bugti and others who were supporting Bugti? Since Bugti is dead, who would answer these questions?
Was Bugti attacked by the para military forces or died on his own. The assertion that Bugti died on his own and chose this kind of death as an honourable way to finish his life seems in agreement with his 'born free' nature. The truth of what had happened would not be told, at least in the near future as the mist of secrecy is likely to get denser over the events that had occurred over a period of two years and culminated in the circumstance in which Bugti died.
Did the hillock that had provided hiding place to Bugti and his companions collapse on its own? Was it so fragile and waiting for the manmade miracle to happen?
The death of Bugti on August 26, 2006 mysteriously synchronised with the publication of news in Pakistani newspapers regarding an article by Ralph Peters in US Armed Forces Journal suggesting redrafting of boundaries of the Greater Middle East, including Pakistan, along ethnic and religious lines.
Though the denial from the US State Department had been quick but it didn't work. The demarcation of boundaries to create new and independent entities with handpicked leaders in the region and governments of weak commitments to social and economic reforms would be in the American interest. The American interest seeks, among other things, to weaken the emerging feeling of Muslim unity.
The rise of Hamas and Hizbullah, solidarity among the Arabs in the most battered part of the world - Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon - and unanimous demand for respectable living in the neighbourhood of a Zionist regime has awakened the US, Israel and their allies to new challenges to their collective interest. There is awakening among the Muslims that sectarianism, ethnicity and divisions among the Muslims have considerably weakened them.
According to a large number of Muslim leaders in the Middle Eastern region the new geographical boundaries Ralph Peters has drawn are part of a sinister move. It has necessary support of the US government and should be reviewed critically before its implementation begins and makes the situation more complicated.
They have termed Hamas and Hizbullah as a phenomenon and not movements. This phenomenon transcends caste, colour, religion, sects and ethnic differences. There is general feeling that Middle Eastern resources should be protected and used for the benefit of the people of the region and all 'invaders should be resisted'.
This is possible only through unity and faith in the strength of united people. People divided on sectarian, ethnic and other lines would serve the interest of those who want redrawing of Middle Eastern boundaries.
Irrespective of the reasons for unrest in the Middle East, South Asia and Central Asia, huge mineral wealth in these regions is the main target of the greed of big nations who remain engaged in drawing and redrawing boundaries of different countries to suit their interests.
Huge mineral resources and oil and gas reserves seem to be a sound reasons for big powers thirsty for oil to exploit the Balochistan issue and add it to their agenda for a new world map. Insignificant events have changed the geographical boundaries of mighty empires but were seldom taken seriously; political developments in Balochistan should not be ignored.
Baloch are the only people who can be effective in protecting their territories and what is buried in it. Claimed to be in the interest of the people of Balochistan, exploration of natural gas and its commercial marketing is only one activity that has been undertaken in their area. The reserves of the existing wells, as is being said, are likely to last only about fifteen to twenty years more unless new discoveries are made.
The irony is that the local people continue to see their wealth being used by others. The denial of benefits has brought them frustration. By not extending benefits of the commercial marketing of the gas to the local population, the explorers have deepened the sense of deprivation and feelings of being cheated and ignored. Discontent and turmoil and a desire among the Baloch to exploit their hidden wealth to their own advantage persists.
More than ninety percent Baloch live on arid land. They have never been out of their villages and have only seen the sun rising from behind the nearby hills in the east and setting in the nearby hills in the west in their villages. The sun tells them - wake up to work and go to bed to wake up again to work even harder as you have to earn a loaf of bread for yourself and your family - this is your life and poverty is your fate.
FIRST: This perception of fate and poverty needs to be changed through the process of dialogue with true representatives of the people of Balochistan and not with the people collected by the military and civil bureaucracy.
SECOND: It is also time to avoid challenging the remaining cohorts of the 'farari camps'. Rather it is time to work for their rehabilitation. These two initial steps seem to be the means to save Balochistan from ceaseless unrest. No one other than a Baloch knows how to protect his land, its geographical boundaries and the wealth hidden underneath his land of Balochistan.
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