Unlearnt lesson

On his last visit to Karachi, the Chief Justice of Pakistan referred to the Senate elections as a "demonstration of enforcement of the constitution" though unfolding events suggest that even in these elections, "rigging" did take place. The conduct of the Supreme Court, without any doubt, is pro-constitutionalism and pro-democracy.
The problem, however, is that democracy is leading the country into what appears to be a bottomless pit, a fact that the honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court often points to while referring to the incumbent regime's management of the affairs of the state, and its visible defiance of court verdicts.
Immediately after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, on December 30, 2007 Michel Chossudovsky, professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization, had authored an article entitled "The Destabilisation of Pakistan", wherein he had foretold what was coming.
He wrote "Washington will push for a compliant political leadership, with no commitment to national interest, a leadership which will serve US imperial interests, while concurrently contributing under the guise of decentralisation, to weakening of the central government, and fracture of Pakistan's fragile federal structure."
Isn't it interesting that Pakistan's much-admired and judicially protected democratic set up unanimously passed the 18th constitutional amendment, which de-centralised many of the federal functions and authorities, with great fanfare, especially the much touted "Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan" part in that amendment.
Yet, all it triggered were demands for creation of more provinces, and added both fuel and fire to the separatist movement in Balochistan. Isn't it odd that the leaders of the separatist movement are comfortably residing in the US, Britain, Switzerland and France, and holding meetings in Germany.
According to Chossudovsky, "British intelligence is allegedly providing covert support to Balochistan separatists.... In June 2006, Pakistan's Senate Committee on Defence accused British intelligence of abetting the insurgency in the province bordering Iran". (Press Trust of India, 9 August 2006).
Ten British MPs were involved in a closed-door session of the Senate Committee on Defence regarding the alleged support of Britain's Secret Service to Baloch separatists (Ibid). Also of relevance are reports of CIA and Mossad support to Baloch rebels in Iran and Southern Afghanistan.
It would appear that Britain and the US are supporting both sides. The US is providing American F-16 jets to the Pakistani military, which are being used to bomb Baloch villages in Balochistan. Meanwhile, British alleged covert support to the separatist movement contributes to weakening the central government.
The stated purpose of US counter-terrorism is to provide covert support as well as training to the "Liberation Armies" ultimately with a view to destabilising sovereign governments. In Kosovo, the training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1990s had been entrusted to a private mercenary company, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), on contract to the Pentagon.
The BLA [Balochistan Liberation Army] bears a canny resemblance to Kosovo's KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army], which was financed by the drug trade and supported by the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND). BLA emerged shortly after the 1999 military coup.
It has no tangible links to the Baloch resistance movement, which developed since the late 1940s. An aura of mystery surrounds the leadership of the BLA." Neither the government of Pakistan, nor those of the US, Britain or Germany have, to-date, challenged any of Chossudovsky's assertions.
The democratic regime in Pakistan has not been able to expose the self-styled Baloch freedom fighters. As a matter of fact, it has offered to give them 'immunity' if they return to Pakistan. The fact, however, is that the separatist movement has been hijacked by foreign powers for their understandable greedy reasons.
Balochistan possesses huge reserves of oil, natural gas and minerals. Of Pakistan's estimated 25.1 trillion cubic feet of proven gas, and 300 million barrels of proven oil reserves (6 trillion according to other estimates), 19 trillion cubic feet of gas, and the bulk of its oil reserves, are located in Balochistan.
Balochistan also possesses a deep-sea port - Gwadar - on entry to the Straits of Hormuz through which 30 percent of the world oil supply moves everyday by ships or pipelines. Britain's BP, Italy's ENI, Austria's OMV, and Australia's BHP are therefore keenly interested in access to Balochistan's energy resources.
It is unfortunate that the Baloch people don't realise that their self-styled freedom fighters have no love for them. Proof: In Balochistan, you can't find a single primary or secondary school, vocational training centre, college, basic health centre, or hospital that was built by a Baloch Sardar.
This is despite the fact that they kept receiving huge sums of money from the federal government, right from the early 1950s. These Sardars allowed the federal government to explore and mine the natural resources of Balochistan only if the benefits thereof were shared with them, not the Baloch people.
Over the years, it prevented Balochistan from becoming the most prosperous province of Pakistan, which it deserved to become. Any West-supported freedom would be a worse delusion because, as in the past, only the Sardars will benefit from the likes of BP, ENI, OMV, and BHP, not the Baloch people.
The greatest misfortune of the Pakistanis, be they in Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Fata, is not just the survival but increased empowerment of the landlord class (especially under democracy) that has eaten away the very roots of justice, morality, common good and, a sense of national cohesion.
This lot that is in power today can't deliver anything except perpetuating it existence at the cost of everything, including the unity of Pakistan. In 1970 too, a return to democracy caused the break-up of Pakistan, when a landlord in the then West Pakistan told the Bengalis "tum udhar, hum idhar".
The Baloch would be making the mistake of the century by following their Sardars. What they need is a leadership that can encourage Pakistani investors (thousands ready to do so, both here and abroad) to explore and exploit Balochistan's resources for the greater benefit of Baloch people.
The West never delivered on its promises; it would do far less now. There is no substitute for self-reliance. What the Baloch need are skills to eventually take over the job of oil, gas and mineral exploration and mining to maximize the benefit of these resources. Making this province a war-zone would be an historic blunder. Just look at Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and see for yourself how, even to its own disadvantage, the power-intoxicated West just destroys the resource-rich Third World.