Will Balochistan Always Be An Abandoned Region In Pakistan?

Post By Majid Khalid, PakistanFeed Staff

It is unfortunate that Balochistan, the biggest province of Pakistan by area, has always remained neglected. Balochistan has been neglected since the beginning of the history of Pakistan. Even though rulers have always known that this is the richest province of Pakistan when it comes to natural resources, they have done nothing to facilitate this region and its people. It is awful that the place from where almost the entire country is provided natural gas is itself deprived of this luxury. Recently, the former chief minister of the province talked about the condition of Balochistan and peace could be restored here.

Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani, the former chief minister, explained the using force will never restore peace in this region. He said that all-out efforts and determination is needed to make Balochistan a livable place in the country. He said that dialogues should be conducted to talk to the angry people of the region and to know what they thought was wrong. He was asked whether he could start the dialogue process to which he said he did not receive the mandate needed to do so. He said Pakistan government had to resolve the matter of Kashmir to make things better in Balochistan.

In fact, he said that the resolving the matters in Kashmir will automatically bring peace to Balochistan as well. He also said that good relations must be built with India, Afghanistan and Iran in order to keep peace in Balochistan. He also confessed that his reign was not the best for the region and that a lot of killings were done during his rule. He also admitted that Quetta had seen the worst days when he was the chief minister of the region. He agreed to the fact that Hazara community had seen a lot of bad days during his time.

However, he also mentioned that things had not gotten better after his removal while referring to a recent bomb attack on Hazara community. The missing persons’ matter is also a big matter that has been associated with Balochistan only. Raisaani said that he had taken steps to talk to the then president and prime minister about the matter of missing persons. He even said that he tried to contact the higher officials of the military about the issue. Reki Diq, a project of gold and copper was also one of the topics in his discussion.

He mentioned that he safeguarded this project as much as he could even when time and odds were against him. He was under pressure but he still managed to protect the natural resources in the region for the people of the region. He also talked about a meeting which he says was called for by Asif Ali Zardari, the former president of the country. He said that this meeting was not a good one and rather ended up awkwardly. The first strange thing about this meeting was that it was to be about something else but some other topics were discussed in it.

He said that the previous president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, had called him for a meeting. The meeting was supposed to be about the law and order situation in the country and Balochistan in particular. He said the meeting instead moved in the direction of Reko Diq project. Raisani said that when he started talking about this matter the president didn’t take full interest and then left. He even said that he didn’t stay long to even have dinner with him. He said the projects in Gawadar are in the hands of Chinese companies but the people of Balochistan were never taken in confidence for this move.