Broken promises
Nizamuddin Nizamani explains why resource-rich Balochistan remains so poor. BALOCHISTAN, the country’s largest province, covers 347,188 kilometres or about 47 per cent of the total area of Pakistan. It is a conflict-ridden, rich in natural resource, geographically important territory. However, according to the provisional results of the 1998 census, in terms of population, it is the smallest with a population of 6.5 million, just five per cent of Pakistan’s total population.
Balochistan mainly consists of barren mountains, arid valleys and sandy deserts. A large percentage of the province’s inhabitants are nomadic pastorals, raising camels, cows and, especially, sheep and goats. The mean annual rainfall in Balochistan ranges from two inches in the west to about 16 inches in the north-east. Some areas do not get any rain for nearly two years and in some cases the entire year’s rainfall comes in a single downpour.
For centuries now the Baloch have struggled against the forces of nature and developed a way of life peculiar to them. They are a people spread in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In all three countries, the territory is arid and poor, and has remained for many centuries in comparative isolation from the major economic and political centres of the region.
The Baloch identity is symbolised in their language, oral literature and code of honour. These nomads are important for the local economy, both for what they produce and as a source of seasonal labour. They are also agriculture producers. Much of the subsistence crop production of the area depends on unpredictable river flow and runoff, which they alone know how to use. These semi-nomadic tribes have, for centuries, managed their resources on more or less sustained levels and led a subsistence-level, but contented and proud life. As seems to be the case among most nomads throughout the world, the Baloch today are faced with economic, political and social realities, which endanger not only their way of life but also the resources on which they have depended for a living.
The study of institutional aspects of the problem is extremely important because it was through institutional mechanisms that these resources were traditionally managed. It is not uncommon for intellectuals and government officials to ignore institutional aspects of development, based on the assumption that since common property rights systems exist among isolated ‘unimportant’ tribal groups, they are not worth understanding.
The tribal system constitutes a system of law and order, administration, and other functions regulating economic, social and political activities of the Baloch community. The members of the tribe share interests in community self-defence, collective grazing rights, facilitation and coordination of movements within tribal lands, and in regulation of resource utilisation. Chiefs and sub-chiefs are equal to all other tribesmen with respect to rights to use the resources in their inspected rangelands. Everyone, therefore, makes collective efforts to cooperate with others and follow the tribal laws and the chief helps to ensure that this is done by everybody including his own family.
The economy is basically subsistence-oriented and animal raising is not done on a commercial scale. This, accompanied by the general isolation, lack of outside contacts and limited consumption needs, has a conservative influence on the use of the rangelands. The ecology of Balochistan, and the nomadic way of life of its people necessitates the raising of small animals, mainly sheep and goats.
In the tribal areas of Balochistan, the government intervened in the past to abolish tribalism, with the objective of benefiting the common tribesmen, but as the political functions of tribalism, ceased, so did the resource-regulating functions. In tribal areas, tribal organisation as a whole is stronger; any institute aimed at replacing tribalism must ensure improved resource use and productivity. Cooperatives or other forms of farmer organisations that may utilise the concept of traditional institutions will help achieve these objectives. The Baloch pastoral sees market centres and agriculture as a resource on a level with the range. He wants more in return for his product, but his first priority is the security of his social life. Human beings with culture, have rights — not only human rights but civil rights. The ecological dimension of the problem can be resolved only as part of a comprehensive resolution of the whole problem, including its moral and political dimensions.
The government established small-scale carpet and rug-making industries in several towns of Balochistan. These cottage industries use raw material like wool and mohair that is produced in animal-raising areas but employment in these industries was given to town people. Had those industries been established in the tribal areas, the people there could have found employment which would have helped alleviate pressure on the rangelands. The pastoral lands and ranges are probably the only resources controlled by the Baloch.
It appears to be true that Balochistan has substantial unexplored mineral resources. According to the ex-Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, “A Baloch child may be born without socks on his feet but when he grows up, every step he takes is on gold.” Experts agree that Balochistan has iron ore deposits totalling 10 million tons at Nokundi and proven reserves of at least 13 million tons in the Chaghi district. Some experts believe that potential reserves at Chaghi exceed one hundred million tons.
Geologists also agree that there are large deposits of metallurgical-grade fluorite in the Kalat district and chromate at Muslimbagh, as well as the potential for expanding the existing production of limestone, magnetite, marble, sulphur and barite. Scattered gold deposits have been discovered in various parts of Balochistan including the Saindak Metal Project but it is yet to be confirmed whether it is worth $5 billion or more as some experts have assumed.
At the time of independence, Pakistan was producing only five minerals apart from cement raw material. Three out of five chromites, sulphur and coal were mined in Balochistan. At present, Pakistan is producing 40 minerals out of which 20 are being mined in Balochistan. However, no serious efforts are being undertaken to develop institutions and training centres to promote and train human resource in this sector. Provinces were forced to adapt the National Mineral Policy after 1999 under which the federal government was given complete authority to control the mineral resources of provinces.Natural resources and minerals such as gold, platinum, coal, iron ore, marble, natural gas, chromate, sulphur, copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and black pearls have already been located and extracted. According to unconfirmed reports, uranium and other resources have also been spotted but due to local resistance are yet to be explored. Balochistan is the driest province of Pakistan with very little irrigation and farming and in terms of infrastructure it is the poorest. It is also the most impoverished province of Pakistan with the lowest per capita income in comparison to the other three provinces. In the eyes of the Baloch what previous regimes have done was exploitive. In the case of the Marri areas, nationalists contend that Islamabad’s oil development programme is exploitive in nature since the would-be-profits would go mainly to the Pakistani government coffers and to foreign oil companies rather than to the Balochistan treasury.
Apart from other issues of discontent, the development of the Gwadar Deep Seaport is a major bone of contention between the province and the central government resulting in socio-political unrest in the coastal regions of Makran. Balochis are sensitive to new developments on their coast without their consent and have registered their disagreement through various methods of agitation.
The name Gwadar is, in fact, a combination of two Balochi terms Giwat = Air (Oxygen) + Dir = door. Gwadar means a ‘door or passage for oxygen’. The head office of Gwadar Deep Seaport is located in Karachi, outside Balochistan. Pakistan presently has two commercial ports, Karachi and Bin Qasim catering largely to its domestic needs. About 2,000 ships including 200 oil tankers visit the Karachi coast each year.
This is a century of globalisation, made so by easy access and exponential trade through the sea. The size of a country’s sea-borne trade is the size of its economy, and trade starts when the Gross National Product (GNP) of a country reaches $17.5 billion and increases by 116,000 tons for each $1 billion increase in GNP. It is further contended that the bigger the economies the more likely they are to generate trade, and Pakistan, with a GNP of over $60 billion and a trade volume forecast of 78 million tons, has embarked upon this maritime venture of building the Gwadar Port.
Although the federal government has been presenting a rosy picture of Balochistan after the development of this port and other mega projects, people on the ground do not take these forecasts and promises seriously due to bitter past experiences andbroken promises.
Literature review and historical archives show that the federal government has failed to keep its promise to the Baloch people on various occasions. They feel that Punjab and Karachi dominate the economy and their resources, and that their attitude towards them is of a ruler and servant. Evidence reflects that to some extent the apprehensions of the Baloch people carry weight.
During the development phase of the special plan at the cost of $1.97 billion unveiled in 1980, the most ambitious was the $300 million Saindak copper-mining venture. Back then officials had announced that during the first stage, 1,000 mining jobs would be created for the locals. This was to be followed by 9,000 more jobs in the smelting and processing sectors. The nationalists wanted assurance that these smelting and processing industries be established in Balochistan. But the cost-conscious Islamabad planners objected that this would necessitate the construction of new townships and other costly infrastructure to make the desolate Saindak area suitable for industrial activity.
According to a UN-assisted study, the Saindak ore deposits are likely to yield not only 412 million tons of copper, but also gold, silver, pyrite and magnetite with an overall potential value of at least $4 billion. Sulphuric acid can be obtained as a by-product of the copper-smelting process. Production was expected to reach 22 million tons of finished blister copper per year and bring an estimated $92 million annually in foreign exchange, assuming a $1 per pound copper price and a $70 per ton price for sulphuric acid. Officials of the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) dismissed the UN study as being “extremely over-optimistic”, pointing to the low grade (0.4 per cent) of Saindak deposits and the high production costs likely to result from the isolated location of the mine. They pointed out that revenue would not exceed $60 million per year. US Geological Survey aerial studies had revealed the existence of significant copper prospects in the vast belt to the west and north of Saindak reaching as far as the Cheshmeh area of Iran, where Iranians found high grade (two per cent) copper deposits.
There is a popular joke regarding the destruction of Afghanistan — King Zahir Shah and Daud brought the Mercedes-Benz to Afghanistan but prepared no roads for those cars to run on. A similar situation appears to prevail in Balochistan. The government has been introducing mega projects, but has not developed the environment/infrastructure for them. Balochistan’s problems are therefore purely socio-cultural and politico-economic, a result of many decades of distrust and broken promises between federal and provincial authorities.
Excerpted with permission from
At the Crossroads: South Asian Research, Policy and Development in a Globalized World
Sustainable Development Policy Institute
# 3, UN Boulevard, Diplomatic Enclave I, G-5, Islamabad, in collaboration with
Sama Editorial & Publishing Services, 4th Floor, Imperial Court,
Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, P.O. Box 12447, Karachi-75530
ISBN 969-8784-50-0
412pp. Rs795
Nizamuddin Nizamani, a social researcher, has been active in volunteer work since 1990.
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