0 alt="Marker">

Misc Section

l conversation.

Balochistan’s economic affairs are now being discussed informally in small gatherings of traders, bureaucrats, academics medical practitioners and political activists.

In these small study groups, the participants calculate how much resources have been provided for “more then three million employees of the federal government”. ‘Balochistan should be contributing Rs 20 to Rs 25 billion towards the wages of federal government employees where Balochistan’s representation is not even two per cent” a young engineering student estimated. “It is as much as the size of Balochistan’s own budget” another participant informed.

Many of these “informal” economists are convinced that in last 31 years, since the provinces re-emerged on Pakistan’s map in 1970, more than Rs 10 trillion (Rs 10,000 billion) resources have been transferred from South to North within the country.

But Balochistan also received its share of prosperity from drug trafficking, gun running and a thriving market for the stolen and snatched motor cycles and motor cars from Karachi during the decade of eighties and nineties. The Afghan war in eighties opened all avenues of drug trafficking and gun running. Thanks to the patronage from proper quarters, Balochistan also emerged as the main dumping place for stolen and snatched motor cars and motor cycles in Karachi. Wesh, at the edge of Afghan border has been since long a market of reconditioned automobiles being imported by Afghan businessmen through Iran.

Deposit base of Chaman banks is said to be the highest in Balochistan where according to a bank officer “people bring money literally in bags and sacks to deposit”.

Quetta, Chaman and many other towns in Balochistan saw hectic construction activities in 1980s. Quite a big number of buildings and hotels were constructed in Quetta during the decade of eighties. In Quetta, Chaman and a few other cities people live in unbelievably sprawling huge mansions spread over two acres. These are complexes of housing units. Houses for the guests, family quarters, family garden with own power generators and tube wells.

A war is raging again in Afghanistan. Balochistan has become a spring board for launching air raids and may be used for deployment of ground troops. But there seems to be a pall of gloom hanging over Quetta. Bazars with shops full of merchandise are there but not so crowded as they used to be. Real estate value is coming down. One notable indicator is the decline in number of PIA passengers. Much before September 11 and October 7, PIA had started cancelling Quetta flights from Karachi or Islamabad because it is not getting enough passengers.