Content area
Full Text
Abstract: Baloch ethno-nationalist movement is an intractable challenge, threatening the integrity of Pakistan since its inception. Developing initially in response to colonial encroachments and impositions, the Baloch ethno-nationalist movement nourished gradually in the post-colonial Pakistan, primarily in response to the state-centered policies of successive governments and frequent use of force against the Baloch people, not to mention the mischievous and perverse role played by some Baloch Sardars. The article attempts to critically analyze the causes of emergence, growth, and development of, and responses to the Baloch ethno-nationalist movement in Pakistan, with a special emphasis on the contemporary wave of insurgency and the possible solutions for solving or, at least, mitigating the conflict. During the fast six decades, Pakistan's centralized state system, weak federal structures, 'unresponsive' political institutions, frequent use of force, and lengthy dictatorial rules have generated feelings of marginalization among the Baloch people. Moreover, inherent desire of Baloch nationalists for independence, lack of infrastructural development, illiteracy, deeply-entrenched Sardari system, highly centralized economic policies, and alleged foreign involvement have also kept the movement alive.
Keywords: Balochistan, Baloch ethno-nationalist movement, political closure, social exclusion, provincial autonomy, extremism, accession of Kalat, NFC, 18th Amendment, Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan
Introduction
Carved out of the Indian Subcontinent on the ideological foundation of Two-Nation Theory, Pakistan was created in the wake of decolonization process, for providing the Indian Muslims a separate homeland, built on their peculiar geographic spread in Indian ethnic and religious kaleidoscopic mosaic. Pakistan's 63 years history, however, reveals that it has been in the limelight more for the tensions between its dominant and subordinate groups, than for the purported unities of a common religion. Since its inception, Pakistan has witnessed frequent rise of various ethno-nationalist movements, vehemently rejecting and challenging the centralized state apparatus and the 'Punjabization'1 of Pakistan. Among others, the Baloch ethno-nationalist movement is perhaps the most intractable separatist challenge that has been threatening the integrity of Pakistan since its inception in 1947.
Budding initially in response to the colonial encroachments and impositions, the Baloch ethno-nationalist movement has nourished gradually in post-colonial Pakistan, mainly in response to the state-centered policies of successive governments. In the postcolonial era, the allegedly forced accession of Kalat State to Pakistan marked the beginning of the Baloch ethno-nationalist movement which strived,...