Armstrong
RETIRED TTA
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- Feb 2, 2012
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I have never absolved us for not developing Baluchistan the way it should be developed but that 'us' is supposed to stand for 'all of us' - not the Punjabi who presents himself as an extremely convenient punching bag owing to his lack of ethno-nationalistic credentials; just because he doesn't spew venomous bile in turn shouldn't be the sole reason why every bloody politician from these smaller provinces, to cover up their blatant failures and corruption, should give a naraaa of 'Punjabi Khaaa Giyaaa' to settle that !
There is little development outside of Punjab and some city centers of Sindh because of predominantly two reasons:
(i) Literacy has a wonderful way of keeping the people aware of what their Government is and isn't doing; its very easy to have perfectly amenable citizenry in Interior Sindh, Southern Punjab or in Baluchistan because there the Wadera or the Sardar is right next to God for most people. In contrast no one gives a sh*t if you come from a long-line politically active people in Lahore or in Karachi unless you deliver !
(ii) The real issue facing Baluchistan (and perhaps the other two) is not the perpetual statehood of victimhood that they derive endless mileage from where the Evil Punjabi sitting in Islamabad smoking a Hooka is gobbling up every atom's worth of 'their' resources but the rampant inefficiencies, corruption and nepotism within the Provincial Structures of their Governance; case in point if you consult the State of Economy : Devolution in Pakistan, Fourth Annual Report 2011 issued by the Institute of Public Policy Beaconhouse National University or the reproduction of its facts in the PILDAT Issue Paper on the Baluchistan Conflict (March 2012) , the fact of the matter is that since the 1990 (maybe even before that but we can't say owing to a lack of Statistics on the subject), Punjab's share in the Total Transfers by the Federal Government to the Provinces has consistently been below the Population of Punjab in percentage terms whereas it has been marginally above it for KP and Sindh and exponential above it for Baluchistan.
In fact in Per Capita terms (Ratio of Shares in Transfers to Share in Population), Punjab's per capita share has been less than 1:1 (i.e equal to what it should've had in terms of population) for the past 3 decades ! Whereas the other three have it marginally to well above that for the same period; in fact in the case of Baluchistan its been almost twice her population and exceeding it in many years.
So if I'm guilty of something - I would at the very least demand the fairness of being held accountable for something I did or did not do as opposed to BSh*tting that comes out of the other three whenever they find that they haven't delivered on any of the Promises they made and after siphoning off most off the Transfers from the Federal Government they're not really left with much !
Similarly even the disparity in the Army is that same farcial thing that the Bengalis threw at us without accounting for the fact that the bulk of the Muslims in the British Indian Army were from Punjab or the Frontier and the Gora Sahib never really trusted them after the Bengal Mutiny; the same can be said about the Sindhis and the Baluch - If most of them weren't joining the Army and most still don't join it....how the hell are we supposed to bring about ethnic proportionality in the Army ?
And yet despite that the Army continues to do so; the same PILDAT Report gives the Ethnic Composition of the Army (Table 10) and the share of Punjab has dramatically reduced over the years with the share of the other three getting a huge boost !
But maybe instead of crying and complaining endlessly ad hominem they should ask themselves why is it that we Kashmiris despite being less than 3% of Pakistan are more than 9% of the Army (2011) ? Do the Punjabis have a special love for us ?
No - We just signed up more !
And lastly we're ignoring the very large elephant in the room as it is that most of these ethno-nationalists have a tendency of ever so conveniently by-passing :
When you talk about a Punjabi are you talking about a Pukhtoon of Mianwali and Attock, a Seraiki of Southern Punjab, a Baloch of the Derajats and Sargodha, a Potohari of Northern Punjab, a Kashmiri that seems to pepper most of Punjabi Heartland or are you referring to those tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of other ethnicities and linguistic groups that live in our city centers and hold the Punjab Domicile ?
If the Punjabi really is as vile and racist as these Opportunists make them out to be - (To the best of my knowledge) :
Why hasn't there been a single instance of ethnic or linguistic violence in Punjab ?
Why hasn't any of the bile that is spewed against Punjabis reciprocated by Punjabis to the Non-ethnic Punjabis living within Punjab ? Surely if the Punjabi was as Evil-Incarnate as they make him out to be he would've made life hell for the Baluch in Sargodha or the Derajats ? Or he would've been intensely discriminatory against the Pukhtoons who are everywhere in Punjab ? And yet they welcome the both - Why ?
Sindh has been torn apart from ethnic violence - Why hasn't Punjab seen a Pukhtoon or a Baluch or a Saraiki or even a Bihari (they're here) Nationalist Party fighting for the Rights of the Oppressed and the Down-Trodden from amongst them ?
Maybe because the Punjabi can be accused of a lot of things...in fact if one were to write a list of these things - It would be endless, but what he cannot be accused of is 'Ethno-Linguistic Nationalism' that pits one ethnicity or one linguistic group against the Other !
When he foOks somewhere over he does so without giving a foOk about their Ethnicity !
Maybe the other three need to realize that perhaps the Bogeyman their Leaders have created to explain away their endless failures in Governance isn't the Big Bad Punjabi sitting in Lahore munching on his Produce and keeping his cockles warm with his Gas, but the Sardar, the Malik, the Wadera and the Politician who have a tendency of pinning the faults of the entire world on the Punjab's forehead !
As for your Indian analogy - I believe that you are correct; Ethnic and Linguistic diversity has helped them too but also the clever trick of super-imposing the idea of a Historic and Geographic India onto the the State of India - People, Idiots that they are, are intensely Tribal at the end of the day & giving them a romanticized notion of a past that never was but they can relate to usually does the trick - Anthroplogy is such a fascinating subject !
Khair we never did that hence why we're a Nation of Nations; but at least there are some of us who're not into that Ethnic or Linguistic BS.....in time there would be more; literacy and unprecedented interactions are already doing that; my own Pukhtoon and Baluch friends here in Lahore have a much....much better view of Punjab and Punjabis than they had when they were back home and I have a much better view of Pukhtoons when I visited Peshawar; no luck visiting Baluchistan yet....unfortunately !
P.S the Quota works both ways - My cousins from AJK were able to get into top public universities here in Lahore in front of countless many Punjabis despite having markedly lower exam scores all because of their AJK Nationality !
P.P.S I want a more Federating Pakistan; why should I be blamed for the failures of others ? I want the Government to sub-divide Punjab into more Provinces - We never had any issue with it; certainly no one burnt State Infrastructure or killed People like they did in Sindh - for better Administration purposes and as a positive side-effect 'na rahaa baaans....na bajeiii kiii baansoorii' - What would they say Punjabi Khaa giyaaaa ? Phir Saraiki Khaaa giyaaa ? Phir Baluch, Pukhtoon aur Potohari bhiii khaaa giyaaa ?
And give the Provinces more and more Federating Power till we have a weak Center and very strong Provinces; in time these parasites who feed off their own people would be exposed keh 'Pehleii tou Punjabi Khaaa giyaa thaaa' whats your excuse now ?
They said jaag punjabi jaag once n nobody gave a damn .. Our nationalist parties say such nonsense every day .. I've lived in Punjab for many years .. Yet I haven't felt like a stranger .. The only thing I miss are the mountains ..
I think it's a good start .. Although late... But a good step .. Let burry he hatchet.. Or should we remain miserable forever?
Bhaiii ko weseiii tou eik dafaaa bhiii nahin milaaa !
