CrisisBalochistan | September 22, 2011

by H. Baloch

Pakistan has no room for diversity, and the minorities--ethnic or religious--don't have much of a future. Neither do languages, for all languages other than Urdu and Punjabi are in danger.

Baloch children

The Pakistani state is a racist entity and it has an unwritten policy of treating different ethnic groups accordingly. What's worse, it's not that a group of supremacist zealots, a fascist party, came into power, as was the case with Nazi Germany, but rather the state itself is a product of prejudice. The Two Nation Theory--the philosophy behind the culmination of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent--appealed to the superiority complex of the Sub-continent's Muslims who thought of themselves as being racially and morally superior to the Hindus.

This racist attitude didn't end with the partition of the Indian Sub-continent, but was rather retained by both the intelligentsia and state machinery, as well as the privileged inhabitants of the "Land of the Pure," and used for the disenfranchisement of the less privileged indigenous populations--the Baluch, Pakhtoon and Sindhi people. This discriminatory attitude is the most convenient reasoning tool for the Pakistani Elite for justifying their genocidal policies.

The Punjabi make up most of the country's population and thus are the biggest contributors of manpower to the Pakistani Army, which puts them on top of the food chain. They are allocated most of the country's resources, making them the most developed ethnicity in Pakistan. In Punjab the mighty Pakistani Army is a rather tamed beast, which for a security state is odd. Civilians have rights such as being tried in civil courts if suspected of terrorism, and the Punjab Police--not the Pakistani Army--carry out search operations or ask civilians to pull over for "snap checking," which too is only conducted at the entrances of the posh cantonment areas in the Punjab.

The Punjab obviously is also at the center of the country's security and economic policy. Pakistan's Kashmir feud has more to do with Punjab's rivers than with any ideological or humanitarian causes, and its policy of strategic depth stems out of its fear of losing the Punjab to India. The Pakistani state went so far as to conduct nuclear tests in Chaghai and Kharan, Baluchistan, in May 1998, inflicting the indigenous Baluch population with radioactive after-effects such as cancerous mutations and birth deformities.

Pakistan traditionally advocated an agrarian economy because of the Punjab's forte in agriculture, though the province now also has a strong industrial sector, which was supplied with natural gas from the Sui gas fields of Baluchistan decades before the town of Sui was connected to the country's network of gas pipelines.

Following Punjabis in dominance are the Mohajirs (refugees), Muslim migrants from India. Pakistan is supposed to be a country for the Muslims of the Indian Sub-continent, which gives the Mohajirs an undisputed right over the country. The migration started after the country's creation in 1947, and continues to this day. The Pakistani state evicted indigenous Sindhi and Baluch people from their personal property to provide the Mohajirs with shelter. The Pakistani state adapted Urdu, the Mohajir language, as the national language despite the fact that Sindhi was more developed at the time. The adoption of Urdu as the national language not only gave the Mohajirs an advantage in seeking jobs, it also marginalized job prospects for the other ethnic groups, namely the Baluch, Sindhi and Pakhtoons, most of whom have native languages far different from Urdu.

Today the Mohajir rule the country's economic capital of Karachi with an iron fist, under the guise of a racist terrorist political party called the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (United National Movement), MQM. The MQM rose to power during the 1980s under the patronage of General Zia ul Haq's military government. Pakistani spy agencies armed and financed the MQM to counter the Sindhi lead Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP). The MQM not only succeeded in curbing the PPP's influence in urban Sindh, the densely populated Karachi and Hyderabad, but it is also engaged in a sort of ethnic cleansing of all other ethnic groups in Karachi. It does this by either bulldozing entire settlements of other ethnic groups through the City District Government Karachi's anti-encroachment operations or usually by unleashing sporadic sprees of indiscriminate killings, the latest such massacres carried out by the MQM are its targeting of the Baluch of Karachi.

The Federal Government's approach to the MQM's terrorist operations is rather soft. In Baluchistan, Islamabad has preferred consecutive all out military assaults over talks with Baluch Nationalists who are very focused in their armed operations. Whereas in Karachi, the civil-military establishment has an altogether different approach: it plays deaf, mute and blind to the MQM's target killings, abduct and dump, arson and grenade attacks, and extortion. The recent so called Surgical Operation is concentrated over Baluch and Pakhtoon localities, though the recent violence claimed at least 60 Baluchs in four days of MQM terrorism. One has to question: 1) Why were calls for an Army Operation turned down and Police Action opted for by both the government and the army, even after the Sindh province's Interior minister, Zulfiqar Mirza's dramatic revelations made on live TV? 2) Why is the operation focused on Baluch neighborhoods, or other minority ethnic groups like Pakhtoon or Sindhi localities? These people, after all, are the ones who are worst affected by the violence?

What is more appalling about racist Pakistan is the apathy shown by non-governmental institutes like the supposedly Free Media. While the MQM is busy massacring other ethnic groups, the mainstream media is at best being conservative, i.e., not disclosing complete details for the sake of the "national interest" or are busy depicting the Mohajirs as victims.

If you visit Quetta, the capital of the Baluchistan Province, you'll witness that the Pakistani government has a sharply hostile outlook. There is the usual state terrorism and then there is the state's psychological warfare against the people. The Pakistani Frontier Corp paramilitary asks people to pull over just because of the way they're dressed or because they are Baluch. There are machine-gun posts at all major road junctions, outside residential areas and in universities, CCTV cameras installed, and informers with licenses to kill. Pakistan Air Force jets fly thundering over the city, whereas elsewhere in Pakistan's major cities PAF jets are seldom seen flying.

The Pakistani banking sector, too, has played its role in the economic backwardness of Baluchistan. Their only policy is that of transferring deposits to their Head Offices, while allocating a small amount for lending to local businesses or project financing.

Whereas Mohajirs are welcome to Pakistan anytime they decide to immigrate, and Afghan refugees are free to move, do business or buy property, Baluch from West Baluchistan, occupied by Iran are not welcome.

Pakistan's racist elite also find it unacceptable for any Western countries to open their consulates in Baluchistan. The British council, which started operating in Baluchistan in the year 2001, was shut down shortly after receiving frequent threats by pro-Taliban forces, though the only task the British Council was serving was conducting the General Certificate of Education exams and facilitating admissions in the UK. The American intent to establish an American Consulate in Baluchistan has caused quite a stir among the Pakistani supremacists. They're vehemently opposed to the idea, though there are American Consulates in all major cities of Pakistan. One has to wonder what is so threatening about having an American Consulate in Baluchistan?

No matter how Pakistani patriots put it, Pakistan has proved itself a racist country: where the country's civil-military intelligentsia are very fond of the dictum "divide and rule;" where the elite have advocated progressive policies for certain ethnic groups and used others as cannon fodder; and where the masses prefer stereotyping. Such a country has no room for diversity, and the minorities--ethnic or religious--don't have much of a future. Neither do languages, for all languages other than Urdu and Punjabi are in danger.