The Reality Check By Nadeem Akram

These days if you type the word Balochistan in any search engine, your computer will be inundated with all sorts of scholarly articles, historical facts, opinions and links to social sites set up by militants and separatist groups. But that is internet. Majority of media at home, has taken a fifth on talking about Balochistan, however, a certain brave and upright media personalities have filled this void. On such, leading journalist made a remark in his speech that Pakistan has occupied Balochistan. That was a first for me. I have lived in this country of more than four decades and I never knew that we have actually occupied such a huge territory; I knew about losing one! Given the sobriety and earnestness of the gentleman who made that statement, I decided to research the details of our conquest of Balochistan. I could not find a single reference. But during my research I stumbled upon few very interesting facts. For starters, Balochistan, as it exists today did not exist at the time of creation of Pakistan. The area, now referred to as Balochistan and forcefully occupied by Pakistan consisted of four Princely states during the time of British Raj, namely Kalat, Makran, Lasbella and Kharan. In 1876, in a treaty with the Khan of Kalat, Britain brought his territories, including Kharan, Makran, and Las Bela, under the British suzerainty. Afghan Amir ceded the districts of Quetta, Pishin, Harnai, Sibi (Kohlu, Sibi, Shahrig, and Naseerabad) and Thal Chorale to the British. In 1883, Bolan Pass, Chaghi and Murri Bugti area, were annexed by the Raj. At the time of independence from Britain the existing province of Balochistan was administered in two exclusive separate units i.e. the British Balochistan and the Kalat States Unions. Kalat constituted 23% of modern day Balochistan, the remaining was held by British Balochistan, and Muscat. On June 1940, The Shahi Jirga which had the administrative control of British Balochistan, overwhelmingly voted to join Pakistan. Similarly, the states of Makran Lasbella and Kharan joined Pakistan immediately whereas Gawadar was eventually bought from Muscat in 1958 for $ 3 million by Prince Karim Agha Khan for Pakistan. It is a fact that Khan of Kalat was not in favor of joining Pakistan, but being a landlocked territory it eventually joined Pakistan in March 1948, whether coerced or otherwise is debatable. The fact remains that people representing 77% of the present day Balochistan joined Pakistan on their own free will. The so called occupation mentioned in his speech may be a reference to the accession of less than quarter of present day Balochistan. I could not find a single credible reference that Khan of Kalat was coerced by force to join Pakistan. So the allegation of occupation of entire Balochistan by certain segment of media and intellectuals is as absurd as chicken and egg debate. It is no real secret that

with advent of China in Gawadar has made certain powers having direct stakes in the region more than uneasy. On one hand India, is being used to support, train and launch so called separatists to carry out terrorist attacks, on the other a considerable segment of Pakistani media has been taken on board in order to create confusion and split in public opinion on the plight of Balochistan and their fight for freedom. Facts are being distorted, websites containing disinformation are being created, and insurgent groups are living like royalties in the West under the patronage of same masters who control the tongues and pens of our media! In order to achieve their nefarious objective of destabilizing the country, weakening the state demoralizing the armed forces and dehumanizing our premier intelligence agency, his masters voice group of journalists and media personalities are crying hoarse over the missing persons issue. No one can deny the fact that fighting a non-conventional war requires non-conventional methods, and there could be instances where suspected militants and insurgents were picked up in extra-ordinary manner, but it is not as rampant or as widespread as is being reported. I have just one comment on this, hundreds of suicide bombers have blown themselves up during the last eight years or so, did these bombers leave their name and emergency numbers before they embarked upon their journey to heaven? I am afraid not? So what if a parent of these dearly departed files a complaint of a missing son, are we to tell them, sorry we cannot tell you this but your sons head is lying in a glass jar! Thousands of militants have died in encounters with security agencies; do their next of kin know where they are? I am afraid not! Armies around the world are not trained to fight media and diplomatic wars, politicians are! Can real politicians please stand up and be counted!