Travails of Balochistan

If the Centre's refusal to devolve power to the federating units was the daunting Rubicon to development and wellbeing of the people across the national spectrum it has been overwhelmed and crossed, thanks to the 18th Constitutional Amendment. Article 172 of the constitution, which deals with ownership of lands, minerals within the continental shelf on surface or beneath, has been amended to mandate that "mineral oil and natural gas within the province or the territorial waters adjacent thereto shall vest jointly and equally in that province and the federal government". But that is not happening, says Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik; and he is quite right. The hard fact is that while the much-ballyhooed 18th Amendment takes pride in empowering the provinces its follow-up is selective. Education and health, for instance, could be better looked after by the federal government the Centre hasn't much time to transfer these to the provinces - a hurry that has spoiled the curry as both the sectors have heavily suffered at the hands of their new owners. But no such hurry is being shown by the federal government to pass on the benefits accrued from exploitation of natural resources and mineral wealth that lie in the provinces. Had the amended Article 172 been followed "in true sense" Balochistan would have overcome its historical deprivation, says Dr Malik. Unless pushed to the wall a man of Dr Malik's disposition would not have passed such an unvarnished judgement at a well-attended two-day Balochistan Development Forum. He harbours two main grudges against the federal government; one, the structure of Ministry of Petroleum, and two, Islamabad's Council of Common Interest (CCI) agenda-setting monopoly. That even the rosy picture sketched a day before at the same forum by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hasn't impressed the chief minister is a measure of the yawning gap between the federal government's words and actions about its focus on Balochistan. 

Balochistan is a huge landmass, rich in natural resources on surface and beneath. And there have been no dearth of pledges and plans to exploit its natural wealth for the betterment and prosperity of its people. There is this world-class Reko Diq gold and copper mine; one all-weather deepwater Gwadar seaport, planned Pak-China Economic Corridor and a vast network of highways criss-crossing the province. But nearly all of it is in the uncertain future - while poverty and underdevelopment remains unalleviated, winds of revolt blow hard across the province. Where then is the failure; is it that the Centre stands in its way to move forward, or is that successive provincial governments have failed to perform?. As a way forward Chief Minister Malik has outlined a three-pronged strategy: institutional development, infrastructure development and human resource development. On his part he said he would restructure the Public Service Commission to ensure merit-based government through a transparent and credible process. Not a mean challenge indeed for the man who heads a coalition government, and in an ambience of 'where is my pound of flesh'?. Placing their own men in key bureaucratic positions is a lingering curse, and not only in Balochistan. A compromised bureaucracy is the politicians' dream in rest of the provinces also - a failing but, for which we would be having good governance and no grave crisis of energy and fuel shortages that we have now. How to go about putting an effective government on ground the chief minister pleaded co-operative help in the form of investment by international agencies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and UNDP, particularly in the water sector as his province, he said, is facing a serious situation of drought. The immediate response available from the same floor was there, with their representatives urging more calibrated approaches, which can be evolved by mutual exchanges. And, no wonder, the Reko Diq was discussed in some details, with PM's Advisor Sartaj Aziz insisting that it's under his government's sharp focus and once on line it would prove to be a 'game changer'. How soon that would happen Balochistan legal advisor on this project, Ahmer Bilal Soofi, is cautiously optimistic: he informed the forum that proceedings in the International Court of Justice 'have opened up the possibility of that the government of Balochistan and Tethyan Copper Company can settle the issue out of the court and get the assets of the Balochistan government released for further development'. All in all, it was indeed an interesting interaction between various stakeholders in the development of Balochistan. But more important now is that reservations openly voiced by Chief Minister Dr Malik on the role of ministry of petroleum and his take on CCI are taken up by the federal government in all seriousness.