Wampum

Is Pakistan?

It wasn't in 1971, when the Punjabi-dominated state and military of Pakistan pursued a military solution to Bengali agitation for provincial autonomy. Wikipedia has a readable summary of the run-up to the November 1971 War. Take note of the diplomatic details.

Is it today?

Fortunately, Jonah gave me several hours of time uninterrupted by sleep to grovel about the Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and the Arabic and Farsi press (in translation) to dredge up the dimly remembered and the never-previously known. The search key was (unpublished, via bharat-rakshak.com, while researching, partly published, background on my notes on the blackout of independent humanitarian assistance to the indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by the Indian Military, and the force structure of the Indian Navy, the 7th largest in the world), was a note that a four Indian Naval vessels pointedly conducted a good-will visit to Bander Abbas, under the non-alignment doctrine, last September. That got Gwader (or Gwadar or Gawadar) as a search key. The rest should be obvious.

Beluchistan wasn't part of British India in 1947, in fact up until 1957 the coastal area of Gwadar was part of Oman. There was shooting war in Pakistani-Beluchistan in 1970, which the Punjabi-dominated state and military of Pakistan won with the assistance of Iran, then under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and supressing Baluchis in Iranian-Baluchistan. The three principle shieks of Pakistani-Beluchistan and more than 10,000 tribal soldiers went into exile ... in Soviet Afganistan (re-read carefully the diplo-portion of the Wiki entry cited above). With the fall of the Soviet regime in Kabul, the Beluchi tribal governments and militaries in-exile returned to Pakistani-Beluchistan and non-war with "the center" -- the Punjabi State ruling from Islamabad.

The Gwadar project vision is simple -- link the Central Asian States pipelines to a deep-water port, and the Sin gasfield to the Punjabi State. China benefits (and is financing) via access to foreign energy (re-read carefully the diplo-portion of the Wiki entry cited above), and Pakistan benefits by being the port of entry to a new "Northern Road", from the Gulf of Oman to the Central Asian States, a major deep-water port, the Sui gas field connect. The Beluchis get what the Sindhs got. Gwadar transformed from a comfortable multi-tribal hamlet of thousands and the customary economy of non-state water-borne commerce (aka "smuggling"), to a second Karachi, population 9.25 million, and all foreigners, that is, Punjabis and other trans-nationals. Karachi was the size of Gwadar in the early 18th century. It was a Sindh coastal town.

What are the fundamental (yes, in both senses) issues in the region of Pakistan that abuts Iran (and also Afganistan)? These two blind quotes show the political instutional conflict.

Blind Quote #1:

That powers over legislation, finance and natural resources should be vested with the provincial governments and barring defence, currency and foreign affairs, all other powers should be transferred to the provinces.

Blind Quote #2:

There are two ways in which people can react to this situation. They can say they are sick and tired of “tribal Sardars holding the state to ransom” and standing in the way of the state’s centralizing and leveling mission in pursuit of a “unified and enlightened” nation. Such people see backward remnants and aggressive defenders of tribalism as an obstacle to progress measured in terms of transiting from pre-capitalist social structures based on special bilateral agreements and arrangements to market economies based on universal, contractual laws. In this perspective, Nawab Bugti and his tribes are anachronistic blackmailers who should be dealt with ruthlessly by the state so that the multinational oil and gas companies can get on with their job.

Then there are those who, like their opportunistic political predecessors, would rather buy off the Nawab and his Bugtis for a token in ransom rather than incur their wrath and be compelled to take military action against them. No one really wants to draw attention to yet another fault line in the country’s body politic.

Before 4am this morning I'd never heard of Zakris, or knew that most of them lived in Gwadar, up until the massive deportation of most of the indigenous population into the nearly waterless interior in 2002. Some links are in the extended entry. I'll put up space imagery of the Gulf of Oman and the lower Persian Gulf.

So there is shooting and bombing in Baluchistan, and its been going on for two years. And what is the critical view of the three Sheiks? Gwadar and the Iran-abutting coast is simply going to be handed over by the Punjabis to the Americans, and the Baluchis will get nothing but deportations into the waterless interior, as well as turfed out of the Sin field, which they happend to be living on.

This is getting disjointed. Another episode of "While the Chickens Sleep" ... courtesy of Jonah's sleep disorder. It just occured to me that I never once looked at the current news, after seeing that the Moonie Press was running a Tehran-aids-bad-insurgents-in-Pakistan story, I mean, what's news during a blizzard?

http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=63676
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20050122-105607-1870r.htm
http://www.pabe.org/gwader.htm
http://theunjustmedia.com/Muslim%20World%20News/Articles%20June%20&%20July%202004/Baluchistan%20Stop%20the%20Political%20Slide.htm
http://www.oman.org/bonn_007.htm
http://www.bdd.sdnpk.org/map%20of%20balochistan.html
http://www.bdd.sdnpk.org/gwadar.htm
http://www.strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=e&e=153&id=1105668649&
http://www.vanguardbooks.com/tfttmp/_nuggets.htm
http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsFeb2003/newsbeat1feb.htm
http://www.asianoutlook.com/functionandexplotian050702.htm

rototk: http://www.dawn.com/2005/01/02/top11.htm

Posted by EBW at January 23, 2005 03:41 AM | TrackBack