Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah loved Balochistan so much that he spent his last days at a beautiful residency of Ziarat - a hill resort of Baluchistan. It’s a common story how his remains were treated by his successors. Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan just paid no attention towards Balochistan.
Malik Feroz Khan Noon who became prime Minister of Pakistan on Dec 16, 1957 as 7th prime minister of Pakistan was concerned about Balochistan. Such a long neglect. Still Balochistan was not given the status of a Province of Pakistan.
Aminnuddin very famous for Lahore and a relative of Mian Salahuddin Salli became the agent to the Governor General of Pakistan. His son Usman Aminuddin having oil fame was federal petroleum minister during Pervez Musharraf’s era.
Many people have been critical of Feroz Khan Noon’s tenure in Foreign Office. Especially, during Suez crisis, he failed to sympathise Egypt against invasion of France, Britain and Israel’s combined forces. Mazhar Ali Khan, in an editorial of Pakistan Times (dated: November 14, 1956), titled ‘Darkness at High Noon’, wrote “it would appear from Mr Noon’s strange words and deeds, that he is still living in the dim past-the days when service to the British was accepted by men of his class as the high road to advancement”. Mazhar A Khan: Pakistan; The First Twelve Years. The Pakistan Times editorials of Mazahar Ali Khan (page 472-473).
During my third trip to Gwadar with other participants of the National Defence College in 2004, Malik Amjad Noon informed the participants, “It was Malik Feroz Khan Noon who bought back mushroom-shaped port city of Gawadar from Sultan of Oman”. Khan of Kalat Nawab Ahmad Yar Khan had gifted port of Gawadar to Sultan of Oman.
Many people from Turbat, Punjgur, Jeevni, Pasni and Gawadar hold double nationalities. They work in Oman and live in Balochistan.
Earlier in 2001, I had gone there to produce a documentary on oil exploration off Gawadar-Pasni shore by Ocean Energy-a giant US oil company which was represented in Pakistan by Kamil Lodhi – a brother of journalist-turned diplomat Maleeha Ladhi. As the Ocean Energy had hardly drilled two wells and tracked traces of hydro-carbon there, came 9/11 which qualitatively changed the entire scenario of the region. Ocean Energy packed up when US Naval Flotilla moved to Haft Lar near Balochistan’s coastal belt. I revisited Gwadar when it was formally inaugurated by military President Pervez Musharraf. “We will hold referendum in Pakistan”, Musharraf told curious media men in Gwadar for the first time. There I also came to know one Hamid Hamza who had established a beautiful motel. Hamid Hamza is son of first Baloch General Hamza.
The Gwadar deep-sea port project was announced in 2002, when former Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf promised to transform Balochistan’s destiny by an equitable distribution of resources. Inaugurating it in March 2007, the autocratic leader not only ensured the timely completion of the mega project, but also got the Chinese government provide the financial resources and execute the development of the port’s facilities.
So far, an estimated Rs5 billion ($264 million) have been poured into the project for the construction of three multi-purpose berths with a capacity to handle ships of up to 50,000 deadweight tonnage. But when I visited the port, I saw the cranes lying idle and deserted. A port official informed me that the cargo handling cranes received a large fertiliser shipment some five months back. Nothing much has moved since. Instead, the harbour has become a hub of oil smuggling thanks to the absence of regulated petroleum products in the city. Launches from Iran arrive at the harbour loaded with cheap petrol and diesel.
The cheap Iranian oil provides livelihood to thousands of people who fetch the shipments from the Iranian border and dispatch it to other parts of Balochistan. This inferior oil’s popularity is soaring thanks to the increasing petroleum prices in Pakistan. According to Wasim (not his real name), an oil smuggler, the Pakistani Coast Guard, Pakistan Customs, Levies and other border control agencies are involved in the game. “All a smuggler needs to do is to grease the palms of the ‘law-enforcement’ officers to get their shipments smuggled anywhere without hassle,” he claimed, pointing out large yellow petroleum cans that were being off-loaded from a launch.
Most of the locals in the area are fishermen, but they face a two-pronged challenge: first, they have to deal with the smugglers who pollute the water by plying oil in their launches, and secondly they have to deal with poachers who trawl illegally in Pakistan’s maritime waters, denying local fishermen their catch. “The local fishermen are suffering terribly due to illegal foreign launches trawling in their waters and snatching away their livelihood,” says Qambar Nisar, a fisheries department officer. “We don’t have the means to defend our coast. Sometimes we carry fake weapons and limited fuel to ward off attacks by well-equipped invaders. We fear for our lives.” The mega development of Gwadar offered mega dreams on sale. Not long after the deep-sea port project was announced, the property market boomed with Gwadar’s prime land up for grabs.
Locals sold their land at throwaway prices to real estate developers who rebranded the estates and sold them to investors from other provinces at many times the original price.
The elite lined up to purchase acres of residential and commercial land in what was termed ‘Pakistan’s future Dubai’. People including Pir Sahib of Pagara, Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Musharraf, Saddaruddin Hashwani, elite of Karachi and Lahore purchased big chunks of land in Gawadar at control rates.
During falling days of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he had promised Gwadar Port to the former Soviet Union as Moscow’s next Naval Base in Arabian Sea. Bhutto could not live to see his promise fulfilled. Perhaps his flirtation with the USSR was one of the causes of his down fall.
Port of Gwadar today invites international players to upset the status quo in Mekran’s Coastal Belt. Peace loving people of Mekran with no agenda are if not supportive of Dr Allah Nazar ,an agent of RAW, are silently watching the game.
US having no more status the holder of triple A ratings at the New York Stock Exchange has made people realise in restive parts of Mekran Coast, ”flow of dollars could be stopped”. But the game is not yet finished. According to an important source the CIA has planned a game in Balochistan.–(To be continued)
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