Unity Through Division?

We must recall their successful struggles against the annexation of Sindh to the Bombay Presidency; the federalization of Karachi; the territorial amalgamation of Sindh in the One-Unit; the building of Kalabagh Dam; and the construction of unauthorized canals. Sindhis are federalists but unwilling to compromise about Sindh’s territorial integrity. The proposition of dividing Sindh would reignite the ethnic tension of the past decades, shaking the federal foundations of the country.

The proposition of dividing Sindh would reignite the ethnic tension of the past decades, shaking the federal foundations of Pakistan.

The modern Balochistan or Khanate of Kalat was established in 1666. The Khanate lost considerable territories to invading armies from Iran and Afghanistan. The British forces also compelled the Khanate in 1838-1839 to allow the British Empire a corridor from Khangarh (now Jacobabad) to Quetta with a cantonment to monitor the Great Game. The Khanate accepted this for regular financial assistance, defence from the west and east, and full internal autonomy.

The Khan of Kalat was supportive of the Pakistan Movement. He extended financial assistance to the All-India Muslim League (AIML) by weighing the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in gold and silver. A tripartite standby agreement was signed between the AMIL representatives (Quaid-i-Azam and others), Khanate of Kalat (Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary of Khanate), and British India on 3rd June 1947. It was agreed that Balochistan, being out of the Indian possessions of the Empire, would maintain its independence as it stood in 1838, writes Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, the former ruler of the Kalat State, in his book ‘Inside Balochistan.’

Khan of Kalat visited Pakistan in October 1947 as the Head of the State of Balochistan. The Khan was apprehensive about Pakistan’s direct contacts with the Khanate’s semi-autonomous regions, including Las Bella and Kharan, to secede from it. These differences intensified, resulting in the siege of Kalat in March 1948 and the surrender by Khan of Kalat in April 1948. “I overstepped my authority to surrender in violation of the Resolution passed by the Balochistan Legislative Assembly for Independence. I did so to avoid mayhem”, according to Ahmed Yar Khan.

This triggered the first insurgency by Crown Prince Abdul Karim. When the province was amalgamated into the One-Unit in 1955, the Baloch again rebelled under the leadership of Nawab Nauroz Khan Zehri. The third rebellion this volatile province witnessed followed the dismissal of the elected government of Attaullah Mengal in July 1973. The violent death of Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti sparked the fourth insurgency, which remains aglow to this day. Baloch have never accepted the mistreatment of their land.

The proposition of dividing their land into four provinces on an ethnic basis is tantamount to stirring the hornet’s nest. Would it be advisable to balkanize such a volatile province on ethnic basis - to favour some pro-establishment dynasties in Sahili Balochistan (Jam, Bhutani and Lasi), and East Balochistan (Jamali, Magsi, Rind), and restrain and restrict the perceived anti-establishment Brohis and Pathans in the Wasti Balochistan, and Shumali Balochistan - respectively? This balkanization of Balochistan will engender ethnic conflicts of greater intensity, leading to decades of strife, chaos, and anarchy.

For the past four years, the KPK has not been able to overcome the adverse political, economic, and administrative repercussions of the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA) into it. Broadly, the people of KPK, like their fellow Pakistanis from the other small provinces, have resisted deceptive reforms driven by a hidden agenda of tightening the central control on the federating provinces.

The framers of the 1973 Constitution laid down strict legislative procedures for creating new federal units - to be backed by the two/third majority of the concerned Provincial Assembly and Parliament. This constitutional barrier may be surmounted through political wheeling and dealing. But the economic, financial and administrative issues caused by the creation of new provinces including, as elaborated by Dr. Ishrat Hussain, distribution of NFC and irrigation waters, assets and liabilities, defraying additional costs on secretariats and ministers, addressing legal disputes, restructuring administration, reassigning civil servants, delimiting constituencies and redrawing boundaries would be unsustainable for Pakistan with chronically weak federal bonds, broken institutional systems of governance and weak economy.

Historically, our elite and ruling class have always been ready to kill any proposal that diverges from their political, economic, and financial interests or curtails their privileges. They have successfully thwarted vital political and economic reforms, including the promotion of a democratic culture and the redistribution of agricultural lands. This task should have been undertaken in the first few years of Pakistan’s independence, as India did. The UNDP’s National Development Report of 2021, as elaborated by Ambassador Maliha Lodhi recently, found that the economic privileges given to Pakistan’s elite groups, including the political class, corporate sectors, landlords, and the military, amounted to around $17.5 billion or about six percent of GDP. We need to free Pakistan from its bloody claws.

They opposed the transfer of power to the Awami League, the majority party from the eastern wing. This provoked civil strife, culminating in the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971. They helped a violator of the Constitution send an elected prime minister to the gallows in 1979 and arrogate to himself executive powers in a quasi-presidential form of governance. The Presidents with executive powers dismissed four National Assemblies and four elected governments from 1985 to 2008. The proposition of new federal units reflects the perverse and unquenchable thirst of this privileged class for absolute control over the federation. We would aggravate the fault lines in the Federation, fuelling centrifugal forces.

Our problems arise from dysfunctional political, economic, and administrative systems. We have been shy of reforming them to promote democratic, representative, and good governance with the state institutions working within their constitutional parameters. We need strong third-tier governments with credible public accountability. The metropolises of Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Multan, and Faisalabad should have their separate local government systems similar to the world’s megacities. We need to free our electoral exercise from the executive’s ugly interference and strengthen the independence of the Election Commission of Pakistan. The size of the territory and population of a federal unit poses no problem. The Uttar Pradesh State of India has a population almost equal to that of our country. However, it functions well as a single state.