Xeric
RETIRED THINK TANK
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- Mar 31, 2008
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Yes.
Why not?
Chamalnag was launched in 2005, come 2011, it is still functional rather more fruitful then ever. More than 50,000 Balochs have been employed in one way or other through this project. Had it been not clear to Balochis that this all was beneficial for them they would already had boycotted it.
There was no electricity past Mekhtar (a place near Chamalang), now entire area around Chamalang has been electrified. PTCL was not even functional at Mekhtar, we have telephones at Chamalang now. It used to take 10-12 hours to reach Chamalang from Mekhtar, now it takes only 5. There was no clean drinking water anywhere around Chamalang, now people have FREE tubewells that provide them with water round the clock.Most of the mothers or their to-born infants died around Chamalang, the FTC at Chamalang in the past and a civil hospital now dont let that happen anymore. The labour used to sleep in make-shift tents earlier, now we can accomodte 5000 men in 5 labour colonies there.
In short, a place which was inhabited by nomads who would live in tents around valleys and would never have seen anything past that little mound can now travel to anywhere (say thanx to the transport system primarily used by the workforce), reach a doctor, talk on telephones and have safe drinking water. So you can say a jungle was converted into a small city. A dude who would roam around in vain, had no money to support his family and would easily fall into the trap of BLA/BRA @ of Rs 5000 per month to throw stones on military vehicles and blow up gas pipeline, now earns a minimum wage to 30000 per month.
A simple answer is that he wont.
Why?
Because he knows that the piece of land he owned (that never infact belonged to him - say thanx to his sardar) is paying him big time now and there infact isnt anything negative about it which would delude him as the Army is making sure that he gets what belonged to him. Would to believe me if i tell you that once a rag tag shepard now became a lakhpati within months (say thanks to the royalty he gets for leasing his hill, mountain or mound)? May be you wont, may be you need to visit the place yourself.
The only negative issue the miscreants could had to play with is the this one lie; 'Hey, cant you see the your wealth that comes out of rocks is being harrapped by the 'invader' Punjabis', but guess what, we mad sure that each and every stakeholder (the owners, the contractors, the workers, the federal and provincial govts and the tribes) all have been taken well into account through that agreement (no wonder legal expertise were sought by the Army to pen it). There was only one sub-tribe that didnt agree to join in, now they do either of the following two things;
1- Beg the Army and the current parties (involved in the agreement) to include them in the agreement as well, but then we no can do it, because the agreement cannot be altered before the 10 years as per the dictates of the agreement itself.
2- Try to jeopardize the project by random small scale (mine) attacks, which indeed is very well being catered for by the Chamalang Levies and the Army.
In short, Chamalang is a success, so would be Kasa.
We want to get out of both the projects, but it is the Balochs itself who dont want us to leave. We dont want them to become dependent on us and in order to do that we have adopted a very viable and workable strategy. We make sure that the federal govt, provincial govt, the Dept of Mines and Minerals Balochistan, the civilian bureaucracy are fully involved into the project. For instance, we make sure the police responds to an incident, if dont, well we keep the danda by our side, we make sure that quarrels and disputes are solved by the tribal leaders/sardars, if they dont, well they dont because a fauji is attending all the jirgas regularly, we make sure a Baloch is involved in every step of decision making, we make this sure through the Chamalang Action and Implementation Committee, which include the tribal sardars, a very senior bureaucrat, a rep of fed/provincial govt and the Commander Southern Command himself. This strategy has as a twofold effect - one, the locals dont think that they are being 'ruled'; two, once the Army finally pull out of the projects, well the entire setup dont collapse, like it would have once everything would have been run the Army ALONE.
Santro dear, i hope i could convey my point right.
Thanx.
