No change in Balochistan

When National Party leader Dr Abdul Malik Baloch was nominated as Balochistan’s chief minister for two and half years after the May 2013 elections, he was widely considered to have the capability and competence needed to resolve the province’s escalating socio-economic, political and security issues. Now, Dr Malik’s tenure is over but the province is still plagued by ineffective governance, fragile security and abysmal socio-economic problems.

According to the terms of the Murree Accord signed by the PML-N, National Party (NP) and PKMAP, Dr Malik was appointed as chief minister for two and half years to govern the insurgency-ravaged province. Now, Sanaullah Zehri, a stalwart leader of the PML-N, has replaced Dr Malik as Balochistan’s chief minister for the remaining two and half years through the same accord.

Arguably, the newly-selected chief minister is not a tower of strength who can handle the deeply-rooted tribulations of the people of Balochistan. It is feared that he and his adherents will prioritise their own cauldron of interests over the Baloch people’s interests, leaving bad governance, corruption and nepotism inevitable in the future of the province.

Given the long-lasting indifference and unfettered slumber of the Pakistani people, a meaningful change can only be expected from the legislative, executive and judicial bodies of the government. Evidently, a large number of these office-bearers are corrupt and inefficient, relentlessly endeavouring to reach the government quarters for personal, sectional or vested interests. Hence, change always remains a pipedream in this country.

The NP did not instigate any laudable reforms during Dr Malik’s rule. After his two and half years are done, Balochistan is still beset with the same hardships it was dealing with during the tenure of Aslam Raisani from 2008 to 2013. Governance in the province is still gripped by pervasive corruption, the misappropriation of development funds, the plundering of depleting natural resources, bureaucratic red tape and deeply-seated feudalism.

The NP failed to ensure the full participation of provincial lawmakers in debates and discussions of the provincial assembly. On many occasions, the assembly seemed to be quite immersed in increasing its own perks and privileges, while purposefully brushing aside the intensifying public issues. According to a report titled ‘Score card’ issued by the Pildat, the Balochistan Assembly passed only 16 bills in its second parliamentary year from June 2014 to May 2015, and three of them involved increasing the perks and privileges of the MPAs.

On the economic front, the province still lags behind the rest of the country in terms of socio-economic prosperity. Industrialisation is still a distant dream for the mineral-rich province. Poverty, joblessness and economic insecurity have bought about frustration and deprivation amongst the educated and skilled youth who usually acquire education from colleges and universities in other provinces. When trained individuals are systematically deprived of adequate employment opportunities, it is no wonder that some of them choose to join criminal or militant outfits as a means for survival.

According to reports regarding Balochistan’s economic conditions, more than 30 percent of the people are jobless, over 52 percent are living below the poverty line and 63 percent do not have food security. To pacify the literate youth, the provincial government crafted an impractical paid-internship programme for all graduates to be employed in government services. Thousands of applications were submitted but the government remained unresponsive. The NP government also earmarked 77 percent of the 2014-15 budget for non-development expenditures, thus further inhibiting the youth from innovation, creativity and industrialisation.

Moreover, the nationalist government established the Chief Minister Policy Reforms Unit (CMPRU) as an advisory body for speedy development. However, all plans fell flat and a large amount of money was wasted in paying members’ salaries, as expected. Under the CMPRU, Dr Malik conducted a Balochistan Development Forum in Islamabad in January 2015 to attract investment for the province. Almost Rs25 million was spent, but no visible positive changes occurred.

The province has been facing security issues for the last few decades, and the situation seems to have escalated with the war on terror. Dr Malik initially endeavoured to bring the alienated and exiled Baloch separatist leaders to the table to discuss potential measures, but failed to do so. In an interview with the BBC, the separatist leader of the Balochistan Republican Party, Brahamdagh Bugti, claimed that he had met Dr Malik in Geneva. The National Party also dispatched a delegation to London to meet the Khan of Khalat and coax him into returning to Balochistan. Apart from these two unsuccessful steps, the NP did not craft any effective measures to counter insurgency or sectarianism to bring normalcy back to the province.

To tackle the education crisis, the NP embarked upon an educational emergency programme in January 2014, allocating 26 percent of the total budget to the sector. Through the National Testing Service, 5000 teachers have been selected to teach in primary, secondary and higher education institutes. The NP also approved the construction of two medical colleges, one in Turbat and one in Khuzdar. But despite the reports of progress, according to a survey by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the literacy ratio in Balochistan somehow dropped by 3 percent in the year 2013-2014.

During Dr Malik’s tenure, a large number of students from Balochistan University held demonstrations and boycotted classes because they claimed that Dr Malik and his allies had resorted to nepotism in appointing the university’s vice chancellor.

At present, the literacy ratio of the province is dismally low at 39 percent and the female literacy ratio in some districts is as low as one percent. According to a report by the Alif Ailaan campaign, 66 percent of children aged between 5 and 16 are currently not enrolled in school. Advisor to the Chief Minister on Education Sardar Raza Muhammad Barrech stated that there are only 12,500 primary, secondary and high schools and around 7000 of these schools have just one teacher and one room for classes one through five.

The province is also a major hub and route for the international narcotics trade in the region. According to the UNODC World Drug Report, a significant proportion of drug production lies in Afghanistan and smuggled to the world via the coastal areas of Balochistan. Presumably, it was not a priority of the provincial government to root out the burgeoning drug trade and clamp down on drug cartels in the province.

It is axiomatic that a mere change of guard will not help in resolving Balochistan’s deeply-ingrained issues. If the federal and provincial setups earnestly wish to transform Balochistan into a developed and prosperous province and Gwadar into a regional trade hub, they should take measures which focus on the future and execute them prudently.

The proposed steps should include free and high standard education for all children, adequate employment opportunities, fair and transparent elections with opportunities for maximum participation from the educated youth for seats in the assemblies, a crackdown on all drug smugglers and perpetrators of sectarianism, and an implementation of a system of proper checks and balances on the policies, actions and transactions of all government servants and politicians. Any more shortcuts would only further worsen the socio-economic and political crises plaguing the province.

The writer is an independent researcher, blogger and columnist based in Karachi.

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