Fashionable dreams in turbulent Balochistan

[sparklingway]

Fashionable dreams in turbulent Balochistan

Wednesday, 07 Jul, 2010

In this picture taken on June 30, 2010, Pakistani Baloch women embroider at the Baluchistan Institute of Technical Education (BITE) run by the Pakistan army in Quetta. – AFP​

QUETTA: Mehtab Kanwal embroiders a women's tunic, dreaming of a prosperous future as a fashion designer with a boutique - albeit in one of the most turbulent and forgotten parts of Pakistan.

Kanwal's dream just may come true thanks to a free design course at a new institute where officers gave journalists a guided tour to showcase development projects undertaken by a military with a chequered record in Balochistan.

“I belong to a lower middle-class family and want to be a help to my parents, who strongly support women's empowerment,” said 16-year-old Kanwal.

“I'll open my own boutique and a school to pass on the skill to other girls of my city and province,” she told AFP.

The army founded the Balochistan Institute of Technical Education (BITE) three years ago in Quetta as part of a pilot programme to turn raw youth into skilled labour in the resource-rich, but insurgency-torn southwestern province.

Although a drop in the ocean of massive challenges facing Baluchistan's eight million people, the institute offers an opportunity for teenagers from low-income families to learn skills that can earn them a decent livelihood.

Balochistan has some of the most remote communities in Pakistan, miserable social indicators and a deeply traditional society where many women, particularly in the countryside, are rarely allowed to leave the home.

BITE opened its doors in 2007 and teaches more than 500 students, including 165 girls, subjects from beauty to sewing and knitting, mechanics and auto electronics.

Tuition is free and a monthly incentive of 2,000 rupees (24 dollars) encourages attendance among poorer students, says head Brigadier Jamil Sarwar.

“I feel lucky to have got permission from my parents to attend the course because we are still living in an environment where girls are not allowed to go out of their homes,” Kanwal said.

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has suffered from a separatist insurgency for six years. Sectarian killings targeting non-Baloch and non-Sunni Muslims are on the rise in Quetta, the regional capital.

For decades, people have felt excluded or marginalised by the central government and the province has long been a fertile breeding ground for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants, as well as separatist rebels.

When Baloch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources, the government responded by fanning out troops across the region's main cities.

Baloch nationalists resisted. Hundreds of people have died in violence between Pakistani troops and insurgents and the military has been blamed for the disappearance of Baloch activists.

The government says it is working to implement sweeping reforms - criticised by Baluch nationalists as too little too late.

The government agreed to thin out the army's presence, withdraw and halt construction of a new garrison in the gas-rich Sui district and replace the army with paramilitary patrols in troubled areas.

It has promised constitutional, administrative, political and economic reforms in a bid to grant the province more independence and wealth creation.

The government has also increased the development budget for Balochistan from 42 billion rupees (500 million dollars) to 50 billion rupees.

The army recently relaxed requirements on Baluch men signing up, but the numbers who have joined a training academy in Quetta are minimal.

Many Baloch see the army as the problem, not the solution, in a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half its 63-year existence.

“Baloch people don't like the military's presence and interference in civilian affairs. Such efforts will further hatred against the armed forces,”said Hakeem Baloch, a former chief secretary in Baluchistan and political analyst.

“The army is not allowing civilian administration to work independently in Baluchistan and this is where the problems begin to surface.”

 

[sparklingway]

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Not quite fashion, but on the subject of the Army's development and recruitment efforts in Baluchistan (posted originally by SOCOM):

http://www.defence.pk/forums/pakistans-war/64710-record-numbers-balochs-joining-pakistans-army.html

And interesting point mentioned by one of the pro-Army Sardars in the video is that he is the target of threats and intimidation by other Sardar's who are against schools and clinics being set up.

At the end of the day I think we need to stop basing opinion on so called experts, tribal leaders, nationalist politicians and bureaucrats with potentially vested interests and agenda's, and seek out the common Baluch in whose village/town these schools, clinics and vocational institutes are set up, and what they think of the Army setting them up and their children/spouses and themselves taking advantage of them.

 

[sparklingway]

 

[sparklingway]

At the end of the day I think we need to stop basing opinion on so called experts, tribal leaders, nationalist politicians and bureaucrats with potentially vested interests and agenda's, and seek out the common Baluch in whose village/town these schools, clinics and vocational institutes are set up, and what they think of the Army setting them up and their children/spouses and themselves taking advantage of them.

Well, objectivity requires examining the issue from the views of the not so anti-state people as well. Even they have to a certain extent expressed apprehensions for the fact that the military is almost singularly guiding the policy and this isn't like the tribal areas where the federation has willingly left the policies to the military rather the military is unwilling to let go of its hold. Case in point being the recent paramilitary operations in the Makran region whcih were condemned even by very pro-state tribal and the whole operation was put under the radar of the media. The political elite of Balochistan is perhaps the worst amongst the country's already rotten lot, but it should be taken on board by coercing them forcefully. The federation has been far more responsive to the problem (at least compared to the previous federal set up) but the lack of institutional presence in Balochistan is a big challenge. From the account you can read in the next post, I wonder who would wish to serve at a BHU that has no electricity, no adequate sanitary facilities and certainly faces a transportation problem. A quack might wish to serve there, but not a state doctor. I'd rather be willing to send a military doctor there who's supposed to work in tough places, at least for some time (the Remote Area allowance for doctors is around three or four thousand and frankly that is extremely low). At least the Federation can send a bunch of Solar PVs to the area to light up the BHU and provide electricity for maintaining and storing the drugs and vaccines properly. The Baloch political elite with their everybody-is-a-minister assembly and degree-degree-hoti-hai CM are clearly a bunch of scums who deserve flogging from their people. It's time the Federation takes notice of their apathy to the situation outside Quetta (where they live) and withhold whatever federal payments are due unless and until they start taking care of the projects that have slowed down due to the lack of funding. Also, the next Balochistan Chief Secretary and DCOs of the important areas should be the top most bureaucrats. Don't send them to Lahore, there'll be an ample number of people to serve there. Send people like Salman Siddiq and Shoaib Suddle here.

I have a big objection to this coverage though. The military has a very, very effective PR machine (perhaps the most efficient in the country). Yet, when it comes to covering these places and events in the tribal regions, only the international media is accommodated. I understand that the number of channels has proliferated, but a single top notch journalist from major newspapers and an APP photographer would do the job. The "gora" bias in our mentality seems is still there and there's the need to showcase the efforts to the international media to calm their apprehensions. See for this report, the ISPR arranged for "AP, Reuters, CNN, China Radio and others" (AFP has covered hence and it was there as well) and locals were only "Saleem Safi, Haroon Rasheed, Ali Raza, Abdul Malik, and Arshad Shareef". Taking the local reporters more frequently would be beneficial. At least the 8 o'clock and major hosts like Hamir Mir, Talat Hussain party should be taken to the tribal regions and frontline for reports in addition to these areas.

I'm super happy to see the women at least not being "domesticated" as they say (yes it's a cruel word but it's the appropriate word in this context). The girls are learning some crafts and interacting with others in an environment conducive to thinking beyond what they would be allowed normally. Also, the parents seem to have learnt the benefits of letting women get educated and learn some crafts. Some of them are learning some computer skills as well which is commendable. Small steps yet important. Women emancipation FTW !

 

[sparklingway]

My apprehensions over the military's over aggressive control on the Balochistan issue aside, objectivity demands I post the following two articles.

A kiss of luck and fate of locals​

By Saeed Minhas

Flying in the PAF’s C-130 and escorted by our friends from the ISPR, a couple of days in Quetta, Ziarat and Chamalang with lots of adventurous heli-rides – one of which was from Chamalang towards Sui which almost dried the life out of the entire entourage – not only helped us get an idea about the vastness of the province, but also the dryness, wilderness and resourcefulness, in which over seven million Baloch are living. This media-military alliance for two nights bore testimony to the fact that when civilians collaborate with the comparatively-better synchronised military officials, neither time nor space remains the sole domain of the Khakis, and exigencies just happen.

A word about the kiss of fortune we all had on this tour. Flying from the Chamalang coalmines towards Sui, an unexpected rainstorm made the chopper dangle into zero-visibility for about two minutes. With spear-like barren peaks poking skywards – 5,000 to 7,000 feet high – and due to the extra load of reporters and their equipment, the chopper was not flying higher than 5,000 feet from the ground, carrying people with dropped jaws, wide-open eyes and frozen bodies. Gen Athar Abbas, Haroon Rashid, Saafi, Bokhari, Saabir, Hanfi, Chinese broadcaster Musarat, the CNN crew and I, were all trying to look through the side windows to see if we could find anything beyond the thick clouds. A drowsy Malik felt the jerks, but preferred to keep dozing, perhaps understanding that there was hardly anything anyone of us could do except pray for safety.

The thought crossing everyone’s mind was that the other two helis, carrying the remaining media entourage, might be somewhere around us, and if the spiky, rugged mountains were one adversary, they could be another. Nevertheless, after two minutes or so, the pilots managed to pull back from the stormy-zone to bring us all back to the Chamalang coalmines. What followed is not hard to predict, as the jaded faces just kept expressing indifference to all that had happened, and the courageous pilots didn’t spare a moment to seek a photograph with all the survivors, because all of them were potential front-page news item or a breaking news for at least a few hours.

Starting from the Chaklala airbase and after landing at the Samungli airbase, the choppers took us to Kan Depot – in Ziarat District, a restive area inhibited mainly by Pashtuns – where a reconstructed high school, a basic health unit (BHU) and a mosque were awaiting us. Our Khaki friends were showing us the extraordinary work of rebuilding the earthquake-affected structures, which they have developed partly with over Rs 114 million in donations – equivalent to the one-day salary of the entire army – and partly with federal and provincial government contributions. Local officials briefed the media and praised the army for leading the reconstruction efforts, while several local politicians and federal minister Kakar also tried to prove their utility, but basic problems in these areas were just begging to be addressed, or at least understood. A doctor, who claimed to have left the US to serve in Balochistan, and who was responsible for running two BHUs in the area, had praises for the army and was boasting about the services rendered to the sparsely-populated area, when he finally broke out before the media with a list of the problems mentioned above.

Electricity hardly visits them, meaning that life-saving drugs, claimed to have been dispensed through this BHU, could not be kept there, and it merely serves as a health consultative centre. The nearest hospital is more than 150km away and there is no ambulance to take a patient to the hospital. Knowing the area’s conservative nature, the unit doesn’t have any female doctors or even a lady paramedic, thus local females continue to suffer at the hands of local quacks.

Drinking water is not available there and an area, mainly dependent on apple orchards and other agricultural produce, remains dependant on rains for crops and drinking water. Rain has evaded this area for almost one and a half years.

The doctor at the BHU further stunned the visitors by saying, “Whenever I visit this unit, it’s hard for me to stay here for long because there is no toilet here.”

One wonders, where is the provincial government and what has Housing Minister Kakar, who inaugurated one of these reconstructed buildings named after him, done in the past two years while the army was busy reconstructing? Since the army has helped rebuild this BHU and others, it’s now for the provincial government to provide all logistics, but provincial Health Minister Samad Khan, along with his brother, just smiled back instead of responding to such queries. Ziarat, the residency of the founder of Pakistan, was at display, where a towering portrait of Quaid-e-Azam stood at the entrance, saluting all the visitors. Inside the residency, a lot has been changed. One of the local senior officials said, “Archaeological restoration is considered a highly skilled and scientific job, but when that is done by the army, what should we expect?”

The natural flow of gardens has been reshaped by paving cemented pathways and huge staircases, even the mosaic tiles decorating the roofs of the inner structure have been replaced with locally-available wood. It certainly was not this way when I came here in 1994, when the residency was being used as a guesthouse for the then CM, Nawab Magsi, and his friends, and we were given the privilege to sleep in the same room where the father of the nation used to sleep. (Courtesy: Daily Times)

Balochistan Diary: Trust deficit keeps growing​

By Saeed Minhas

A growing gap between the government and the strategic battalions of Balochistan is resulting in further alienating the stigmatised ruling elite from the brewing mainstream sentiments of a province, which according to many locals is fast becoming a hub of a youngsters-led rebellion.

Failing to tend to development or even the basic needs of the massive population, especially the youth, which now forms more than 57 percent of the total population of the province, political bigwigs and revolutionaries of the past are finding themselves useless in the face of aggressive, jobless and neglected youths. Many seasoned politicians, who consider themselves champions of Baloch rights and are known for holding the flag of rights-struggle since partition days, expressed concerns at development in a post-Bugti scenario.

Talking to some media commanders, short of bursting into tears, many of them lowered their egoistic guards to admit their failure, saying, “After witnessing the annexation, one unit, break-up into a fourth federating unit and then the military operation during Bhutto’s era, we realised that the Mirs, Nawabs and Sardars need to be wooed not only to bring socio-economic development, but also to avoid a repeat of another mili-operation.”

However, with pain in their voice and concerned faces, they said none of our pro-nationalist and pro-people approaches worked, as neither the chieftains nor the establishment shunned dirty games, as everyone can see the results that “the youth is not listening to any of us old guys anymore”. “The use of force under these circumstances would certainly flare it up and the disgruntled elements, who may be in hundreds now, might swell their ranks to thousands,” one of the revolutionaries remarked.

The military commanders, with boots on ground and huge sums of money generated from natural resources of the province at their disposal, have given just another anti-establishment mantra to the province’s youth. They were already fed up of the ruling political elite, who they think have done nothing but built their bank balances by looting local resources, federal grants and foreign aids, just to keep development at bay. Increased federal grants, the programme for Balochistan’s rights or any other development project by the federal or provincial government or by the army is considered an aberration by these young platoons, they added.

The elders agreed that ethnicity has never been an issue for Baloch nationalists, but when locals are picked up in the middle of the night and thrown into dungeons, when courts fail to provide justice and when the government is just busy making money, these youngsters act without any remorse, which in this case are the Punjabis who are settled here for decades.

“A point has come that the army’s good acts are being taken negatively by these rebellious groups,” commented one of them. Citing the Chamalang project, he said even that is being considered exploitation of resources by the army, whereas the fact is that despite several ambushes, harassment and looting of transporters and migrant labourers, the army has kept this project running, thus giving hope not only to the Marris and Lunis, but the entire region. They said there is nothing wrong if negotiations take place under the army’s umbrella and bring some economic as well as social welfare to the locals.

“But, for God’s sake, please tell the ruling political elite to at least wake up and listen to the young marching platoons, otherwise it will be too late and even the army won’t be able to do anything,” they said. They added that when some army officers consider them “Mr Perfect” and start pushing the political elite – no matter how corrupt and short-sighted they may be – they are not doing any favour to themselves, the country or to the pro-Pakistan Baloch. “Army officers, in charge of funds and with troops at their disposal have to take politicians on board and avoid adventurism, otherwise, it might become worse than Bangladesh,” they added.

Brief encounters with the army and FC officials revealed that there exists not only a trust deficit between them and the political elite, but they also seem to have several reasons to be wary of the judicial system, which they consider is playing in the hands of few separatists.

Sitting in a volatile province, many of the serving officers rubbished the notion that another Bangladesh-like scenario is emerging. The army being the only institution, which has the luxury of sticking to the basic norms of an institutional structure in the country, seems to have learnt a lot from the mistakes of 1971, but preferring a solo flight over a pluralistic approach is still indigestible by many senior officers.

Will this approach help us or not cannot be argued, because the facts remain as obscure today as they were in the 70s, commented a senior journalist accompanying us at a dinner in the Quetta Club. (Courtesy: Daily Times)

 

[theboss]

The baloch art is highly valued and respect in UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia and talent of these woman will find extensive markets in above mentioned countries.