In my previous post about Pakistan's Balochistan Problem, I mentioned an account of how Nawab Akbar Bugati, a leader of Bugati tribe, had been vital to get Baloch people together agaist the atrocities committed by Pakistan's Punjab centric government. Nawab Akbar Bugati was assassinated on the same day when in last month Baloch Liberation Army took life of 23 innocent punjabi workers after verifying from their IDs.
I said in the previous article and emphasise here it again as a henious act against humanity. Undoubtedly, it was an act of terrorism! Nonetheless the conflict in Balochistan has its roots in the history of a weak tribal alliance system, economic oppression, and rivalry with neighboring ethnic groups. All these factors have been driving an intermittent culmination of Baloch nationalism even before the birth of colonialism in Balochistan.
At the time of pre-colonial era, Balochistan was highly fragmented society with many small tribal settlements. Some of the leaders did try to combine all tribes together, but ultimately British rule successfully annexed Balochistan in 1884 by way of force and divide and rule policy.
Unfortunately, British rule was only interested to exploit the mineral rich area, left Balochistan relatively poor and tattered under the British India. This trend of suffering economically must have stopped once the colonies were abolished around 1950s but the negligence of this region for a better infrastructure and economy had never met Baloch I expectations, not in 75 years of Pakistan ruling in the area.
After it became clear in 1940a that British rule may end anytime, there was a second wave of nationalism among Balochi people. There were many scattered movements that asked for a free Balochistan but in 1947 Pakistan's newly formed government forcefully annexed Balochistan in Pakistan. However, Balochistan was never given its proper place in the politics of Pakistan. It's not hidden to anyone, Pakistan's government and military has always been dominated by Punjabis.
The negligence of Balochistan in bureaucracy and government gave birth to economic oppression of the region. It's evident at a single glance that Balochistan has always been the poorest and least developed of all of Pakistan’s provinces. Since the mid-1970s its share of the country’s GDP has dropped from 4.9 to 3.7 percent. Balochistan has the highest infant and maternal mortality rate, the highest poverty rate, and the lowest literacy rate in Pakistan.
Despite being Pakistan’s most abundant province in natural gas, Balochistan has seen little benefit from its gas fields relative to the Sindh and Punjab provinces. This is because a new constitution introduced in 1973 set provincial gas royalties at 12.5 percent. However, the wellhead price of gas from each province was differentiated, based on per capita provincial income in 1953. While this tremendously disadvantaged Balochistan, the dismissal of the provincial assembly in February 1973 left them without recourse. This has resulted in a wellhead price five times lower than in Sindh and Punjab, meaning that Baloch receives less in royalties. Furthermore, the government has returned little of the royalties owed to the province, citing the need to recover operating costs. Consequently, Balochistan is heavily in debt.1
However, in the list of conflicts the biggest is seen the development of the Gwadar2 mega-port, which has been sold to China by an insolvent Pakistani government. Baloch people were always against it and now when Chinese companies and people are seen everywhere in Gwadar, Balochis don't even get the share in jobs provided by Chinese agencies. If this isn't much, there's a town being built closer to Old Gwadar to seperate Balochis from new establishments.3
With so much of exploitation of resources and oppression of people, what can we expect except the protests and uprisings in nationalism. I'll take your leave with the article which is from Pakistani Media' and clearly indicates that Balochistan has gone from the hands of Pakisthan.