The simmering issue of "Greater Balochistan" seems to be coming to a boil. Moving in tandem with many other anti-Pakistan forces, the self-styled ruler of Kalat, Mir Suleman Dawood, has announced the formation of a 'council', which would ensure the "creation" of an independent Balochistan.
As to the membership of the said council, the names have not yet been finalised, but he does want some Iranian 'representatives' to be on it, clearly indicating that he is in step with forces believed to be scheming for a Baloch homeland comprising large swathes of Pakistani, Iranian and Afghan territories. Addressing the Quetta-based journalists on telephone, from his base in London on Tuesday, he claimed having the backing of 'friendly and like-minded' countries who have 'promised all help and co-operation'.
He doesn't want any reconciliation with the government of Pakistan, unless mediated by the European Union and the United Nations; that's a way of internationalising the issue. And he is not bluffing; his words got substance and credibility instantly, as a group of Baloch Students Organisation (Azad) stormed the Khuzdar Engineering University the same evening and tried to hoist the flag of an 'independent Balochistan' on varsity's administrative block.
The mischief called "Greater Balochistan" has been in the air for almost half a century. First, it was a socialist hobby-horse, fielded by then USSR-led socialist camp and propagated through a Basra-based clandestine radio network.
However, the end of the Cold War did not bring its demise, it seems to have survived and lives on now as the love-child of the West - in the hope that such an anarchic and chaos-spawning move would not only weaken Iran, but also strongly implant ultra-nationalistic pride in the hearts and minds of the Baloch, leaving no room for religion-based extremism. Even maps depicting the Baloch homeland have appeared in a prestigious military journal of the United States.
Since the obvious obviates the need to be mentioned, Mir Suleman Dawood did not name India as one of those 'friendly and like-minded' countries. But Prime Minister Gilani did, as he took it up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when they met at Sharm el-Shaikh last month.
But who has created the 'troubled waters' of Balochistan that tempt the hostile forces to fish. Of course, there has been a lingering international conspiracy to divest Pakistan of the province's rich mineral resources and control its long coastline on the warm waters of Arabian Sea. But no less culpable are the successive governments in Islamabad, whose policies remained exploitative, and whenever the Baloch leadership and intelligentsia protested, they were responded to with excessive military force.
Three years on, there is nearly national consensus that the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was entirely unjustified and such a murder was just not possible in any of the other three provinces. It is not strange then that the Baloch want a restructured relationship, which excludes the possibility of the exploitation of their men and material resources by the Centre. They are also opposed to a more pronounced military presence, essentially because they equate the troops with humiliation, ever since they decided to be part of Pakistan.
Although one would much like to resent Mir Suleman Dawood's dangerous behaviour, its treatment as a quixotic outburst of a frustrated person would be a grave mistake. It is indeed a wake-up call. Quickly departing from the practice of expressing empty words and making promises that are never kept, the federal government must rise to the challenge by showing up in Balochistan, not carrying bombs and guns, but with something people-friendly that may elicit a matching response.
Most importantly, the undeclared military operation must end forthwith, and wherever the FC is deployed, it should be replaced with a regular provincial security force. It is also important that political victimisation, on any pretext, must end and, disappearances must be accounted for while political prisoners should be released without any further loss of time. At the same time, the Balochs' lingering bitterness over their economic exploitation must be taken care of, preferably by revisiting the Mushahid-headed committee recommendations.
The thing to remember is that the evolving situation in Balochistan is a different ball game, dissimilar to the trouble in the tribal regions in the north-west. Unlike the Taliban nuisance, the trouble in Balochistan has a pronounced secessionist dimension, liable to manipulation by hostile diplomacy. That it is already at work, Mir Suleman Dawood's tele-press conference should leave no doubt.