Remembering Bugti - Tribal chief or a teddy bear?

[Zakk]

Re: Remembering Bugti - Tribal chief or a teddy bear?

@PaKpatriot1

Well, there is no way that we could simply leave the Baloch to themselves… I agree the have every right over their resources and their land, but the reailty is that Pakistan relies heavily on those resources… Where those resources go is a seperate debate, but eventually, in whatever diluted form they take, the economic benefit that is garnished from these resources does return to the provinces.

Autonomy and independence are two different things, giving the Baloch the ability to sell gas at market rates would not effect Pakistans economy, it would probably improve distribution and enrich balochistan at the same time.

@PaKpatriot1

And that there is the dilema, how do you build up the capacity of the province without harming national intrest?

How does empowering a people harm national interest? I’d say the present situation harms national interest. I doubt the Baloch nationalist movement would exist if there was provincial autonomy. After all in a federal system, the constituent units benefit from the system.

@PaKpatriot1

Meanwhile, they destroy whatever infrastructure they do have and make it even more difficult for development to take place.

Its a standard modus ope***** of insurgencies to attack infrastructure that can be used against them, it’s classically because the people of that region feel no sense of ownership over the development. In NGOese you’d call it the lack of involvement of local stakeholders.

@PaKpatriot1

Bugti had a vested intrest in having this system continue… I mean this man was literaly a criminal… He was famous for murdering his first man before he was old enough to drive. I know a Captain in the Army who has dealt with his men and he tells me that for these Bugti tribesmen its their Nawab and then Allah (maybe he exagerated). But the point is that this sytem would never survive in true democracy…

The fact that bugti in the 1920’s or 30’s killed someone according to tribal law is not a surprise, but that people still do it is one..
take a look at this link if you think things have somehow improved for the better with his death.

@PaKpatriot1

And as for his nationalism, he ofcourse has much to gain from a Balochistan that has a far greater control of resources… The govt eating away at Baloch resources is a direct attack on the Nwabs and their purse strings… Or am I wrong?

Not really Bugti was getting a nominal sum of money from the gas fields, as I said feudals rarely benefit from challenging the status quo.

@PaKpatriot1

So he may not have been a feudal, but he was an autocratic dictator.. Which isnt very different from a feudal. Only difference is that he motivated by different things.

In that respect I totally agree with you, and it’s where he had the most in common with Musharraf

@PaKpatriot1

The most resistance he said came from certain individuals in Sindh and Balochistan who were large land owners…

The agricultural tax was eventually imposed by Nawaz Sharif in 1997, the caretaker government he was a part off are essentially weak because they lack legitimacy.