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Who are enemies of development?
23-03-2006
AZIZ-UD-DIN AHMAD
In 1988, I happened to be in Karachi when
newspapers published a story of police firing on protestors who were
demanding restoration of water supply in Jiwani, a small town on the
western tip of Balochistan. A woman had been killed in the incident. Being
an incurable backpacker, who had yet not seen Balochistan, I thought this
provided an opportunity to find out what was happening besides having a
look at the lay of the area. The lack of development I witnessed while I
traversed the Mekran Division was beyond my wildest estimates.
Two other friends volunteered to go with me and we were dropped by an
acquaintance at Lasbela where we hoped to get an air-conditioned coach for
Turbat on our way to Jiwani. We found to our dismay that there was in fact
no metalled road between Lasbela and Turbat. We were told the bus would
take over twenty hours to reach the destination and that we could make it
in fourteen hours in case we agreed to travel by a petrol tanker which was
just leaving the gas station where we had made the enquiries.
With the driver and his assistant occupying the two seats available, we
were accommodated on the small hood overhead meant for spare tyres. We had
dinner at a roadside dhaba. Muddy and foul smelling rainwater drawn from a
hole ten kilometres away was all the drink that we could get.
We reached Turbat the next forenoon. As we enquired about transport for
Jiwani, a group of curious people gathered around us. They finally brought
a young doctor who had recently started practice in the town. He explained
it was not possible to visit Jiwani as outsiders were not being allowed to
enter the town. We spent the night at Dr Malik's residence. Years later he
was to become Provincial Minister for Health and is now a Senator.
We gathered that there had been shortage of drinking water in Jiwani for
quite some time. The only generator in the town employed to pump water out
of a well had been donated by an Arab Sheikh and with drought bringing
down the water level, the commodity had become scarce. This had led to
protests and the subsequent firing. That a foreigner, rather than the
government, should have come forward to provide a basic facility clearly
indicated that while Balochistan's gas had benefited the entire country,
the wealth generated by it had not improved the living conditions of its
people.
According to the latest census at that time, which had been conducted in
1981, 2 percent of the population in the district had access to
electricity while 92 percent used kerosene oil. Dr Malik possessed a
generator, which had been gifted by a relative living in the Gulf, and
this enabled him to light a couple of bulbs and run a fan. The entire
district did not have an inch of metalled road at that time, except a
stretch inside the city. Everyone we met yearned for electricity, clean
water and metalled roads. They said they had waited all these years
without being provided these most basic needs.
A visit to the bazaar the next day held many surprises. Every consumer
item in the marketplace - flour, sugar, milk, cooking oil, detergent and
cloth - was from neighbouring Iran. There being no metalled road linking
Turabt and adjoining towns with the rest of the country, these commodities
could not have been brought from Pakistan which seemed to be far off from
here. The RCD Highway connecting Karachi with Quetta, which had been
constructed more than two decades back, had not benefited most of the
Mekran Division. This explains the perception that the much-trumpeted road
being constructed to connect Karachi with Turbat would bring no relief to
the population living in the interior. The road is therefore widely seen
to be built for the convenience of outsiders rather than for the people of
Balochistan.
While one government after another had accused the sardars for opposing
development, here was an entire division where tribal system had long
broken down but no government had shown interest in undertaking the
development work. Bhutto demonised the sardars for he needed an excuse to
overthrow the first elected government of Balochistan within months of its
installation. Zia had bribed and patronised sardars to gain a political
foothold in the province. The Musharraf government has launched the
military operation to have an excuse to impose emergency and postpone the
elections using "insurgency" by tribal "war lords" as an excuse. While
people want roads, schools, dispensaries and clean drinking water, the
government wants to set up cantonments, which Gen Musharraf says are vital
for development.
Out of 28 districts of Balochistan, only two are controlled by the Bugti
and Marri chieftains. Whatever sardars are there in the other 26 districts
have traditionally supported every government since Balochistan got
provincial status in 1971. They are now the pillars of the system erected
by the agencies and a part and parcel of the ruling PML. Why do all these
districts remain as under-developed as the two controlled by the supposed
enemies of development i.e. Nawab Akbar Bugti and Nawab Khair Bux Marri?
And why are Chaghi, Panjgur, Kech, Kharan, and Turbat the most
under-developed districts in the entire country despite being the weakest
links in the tribal system? Whenever there have been elections, Mekran
Division has returned enlightened commoners rather than anti-development
tribal chieftains.
In elections conducted under Ayub, the division was represented by Abdul
Baqi Baloch, a graduate of the Punjab University with lower middle class
background. In 1971, the sole National Assembly seat from the division was
won by Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, a commoner and a Dow Medical College
graduate. In every election held after Zia, the region has been
represented by doctors and university graduates. To blame the poverty of
the entire province on certain sardars allegedly opposed to development is
a patent myth that rulers in Islamabad use to cover up their sins of
omission and commission.
E-mail queries and comments to:
azizuddin@nation.com.pk
Source:
Nation
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