Daily Times

The Balochistan Budget shows that due to the NFC Award, Balochistan too has more money to spend just like the other three provinces. But unlike other parts of the country, Balochistan is going through a nationalist insurgency (the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA is of a different character altogether). It is for this reason that a substantial amount of the provincial budget has been set aside for the law enforcement agencies. The reason why the non-development expenditure has increased by Rs 21 billion for the next fiscal year is because of increases in the salaries and benefits of the police, Balochistan Levies and Balochistan Constabulary. While the Balochistan government wants to strengthen the provincial law enforcement agencies, these will not be able to replace the Frontier Corps (FC), a force that is hated by the Baloch and accused of running a parallel government and killing Baloch nationalists. Just this month, Prime Minister Gilani had announced Rs 2 billion to modernise and equip the provincial law enforcement agencies with weapons and provide them transport. If both the federal and provincial governments are so worried about lawlessness in Balochistan, they should spend more on the people of Balochistan and address their grievances instead of further arming the security forces.

Rs 19.2 billion have been allocated to education, which on the face of it looks good but is deceptive. The increase owes itself to the devolution of the universities to the provinces after the 18th amendment. Education, therefore, woefully inadequate as it is in Pakistan’s poorest province, will not necessarily improve. The provincial government wants to spend more on agriculture, livestock and industries, a sum total of Rs 18.3 billion for economic services. This may seem a good measure, but the modernisation and development model adopted by successive governments is being followed without any debate on the kind of society that exists in Balochistan. The Baloch in the ‘interior’ of the province are largely a tribal, nomadic society and unless they themselves own this kind of change towards a ‘settled’ community, imposition of a ‘modernist’ model from the top will not necessarily reap dividends. This model has been resisted by the nationalists for its colonial colour and insensitivity to the specific needs of a nomadic populace. Provinces like Balochistan need a special dispensation given the nature of their historically received traditional culture, while not ignoring the conflict raging there. Money alone cannot solve the crisis in Balochistan. It needs political will for a solution that offers consensual agreement on the long-standing grievances of the province. *