It was just a piece of land carved out of a Nation on pretext of creating a home for Muslim and had inherent flaws which would emerge later in 1971

Blowing up Mr. Jinnah’s statue in Gwadar last year was a strong symbolic attack on his ideology and the flawed idea of the creation of Pakistan. It also conveyed the deep Balochi resentment against betrayal by Pakistan and Mr. Jinnah. It was Mr. Jinnah who fought the case for Balochistan’s independence from the British. He had again recognized Balochistan as a sovereign nation in August 1947. Later, however, he changed his stance, and Balochistan was usurped treacherously by Pakistan.

The roots of the usurpation go back to the times of freedom struggle when initially; Mr. Jinnah was not serious about creating Pakistan and reportedly used the idea as leverage to derive more power in post-independent unified India. The idea however gained momentum due to the personal ambitions of leaders including Mr. Jinnah and got fructified through devious British strategy. When Mr. Jinnah saw the map of Pakistan in Aug 1947, he publicly lamented that he had been given a ‘moth eaten’ Pakistan; a strange country, divided into two wings with disparate groups of people. It was just a piece of land carved out of a Nation on the pretext of creating a home for Muslims and had inherent flaws which would emerge later in 1971, leading to a humiliating breakup.
Kashmir had decided to merge with India, making the moth-eaten Pakistan look even more broken. The NWFP was semi-independent and would never be under Government control. Given the dismal situation, Mr. Jinnah did not want to part with Balochistan; a strategically located huge swath of mineral and oil-rich land with access to international waters. He also perhaps thought of balancing the loss of Kashmir with the grabbing of Balochistan. Pakistan Army was moved to coastal regions of Balochistan as a threat, pressure points were activated and signatures were obtained on accession documents with force and deceit. The freedom movement for Balochistan, one of the oldest in the world started right then. Balochis could have accepted the forced merger with Pakistan had they been given equal opportunities for development, freedom, and prosperity.
However, the ‘Punjab Centric’ Pakistan blatantly neglected Balochistan and robbed its natural wealth to make Punjab more prosperous. Education levels, poverty, health, civic facilities, etc remain one of the poorest in Balochistan. Military atrocities in Balochistan are so serious that it is often called the ‘land of disappeared’. The CPEC added insult to injury for Balochis. With CPEC, their future was sold out to a foreign power. The rich non-Balochis started buying property here and large numbers of Chinese are arriving every day. The demography is fast changing to the disadvantage of ethnic Balochis. Even the jobs generated at Gwadar went mostly to non-Balochis. Balochistan is on sale and the very existence of Balochis is threatened. These negative developments have provided a renewed vigor to the Baloch freedom struggle which will intensify in magnitude and threat. Recent bold and audacious attacks by Baloch Freedom Fighters on Pakistan Government forces have conveyed that Balochis have decided to ‘do or die’. While the violence of any kind is unfortunate, the Baloch freedom struggle has generated a natural sympathy of the world community due to its pure cause.
It is a freedom struggle of people who were always independent and recognized as such but later treacherously made part of a flawed Nation, robbed of their natural wealth, treated like second-class citizens, directly threatened by foreign ‘invasion’ and not allowed to grow. It is a freedom struggle that is not powered by religion, radicalism, or fundamentalism. It is a legitimate freedom struggle against imperialism, hegemony, and exploitation. The Balochis have only one united agenda and that is freedom from Pakistan and reversion to their bonafide right of being a sovereign nation. Pakistani Government should keep their hands on their hearts and ask themselves. what would they do if they were in place of Balochis? Balochistan’s freedom
aspirations were still now kept hidden by the ever-lying Pakistani establishment from the world community. However, the magnitude of the recent attacks by Baloch Freedom fighters against
Government forces inside Balochistan have completely exposed the seriousness of the cause. Pakistani establishment as always will keep blaming the situation on others and play the conspiracy or victim card and issue forged statements but the fact is that the Freedom struggle in Balochistan has expanded to unprecedented realms and is a reckonable threat.
Pakistan’s false cries for Kashmir are in reality to muffle the voices of wailings in Balochistan. Its Kashmir rhetoric is also to divert public attention from growing demands for Pashtunistan, Sindhu Desh, independent Gilgit-Baltistan, and mayhem created by TTP. Publishers in Pakistan should not invest money in printing maps of the country because it will change every now and then as the country keeps breaking up. Countries created due to personal ambitions do not last long. 1971 is around the corner again.

11 Feb 22/Friday                                                                         Source: brighterkashmir