THE Balochistan chief minister’s statement about his government’s resolve to protect the rights of the province’s fisherfolk underlines the urgency of addressing an issue over which the entire Baloch community seems to be united.

Mr Sanaullah Zehri was provoked into taking up the fishermen’s cause by the reappearance of foreign fishing trawlers in Balochistan’s waters that had in the past nearly wiped out the marine stock. The Balochistan government is also wary perhaps of the federal government’s plans for a new policy that will allow deep-sea fishing by foreign trawlers in the country’s maritime limits (200 nautical miles) and its effect on the maritime resources in Balochistan’s territorial waters (12 nautical miles).

Tension over the threat to the fisherfolk’s livelihood has been building up for several months since the disclosure of the federal Marine Fisheries Department’s plan to issue around 100 licences for various types of fishing vessels in its exclusive economic zone, (between 20 and 200 nautical miles). The plan was promptly condemned by the Pak Fisheries Exporters Association and the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum. Both organisations criticised the grant of licences to foreign parties in view of the huge depletion of the country’s fish resources.

The threat posed by deep-sea fishing by foreign owners of trawlers had also figured in the list of Balochistan’s grievances voiced at a recent conference in Islamabad organised by the Balochistan National Party of former chief minister Akhtar Mengal. However, several other serious issues concerning the fishing community of Gwadar were also vigorously advanced.


The threat posed by deep-sea fishing by foreign trawlers has figured in the list of Balochistan’s grievances.


Concern was expressed at the proposed closure of Gwadar’s old fish harbour, a reported move to shift the population of the ancient settlement to a new site, the threat to the fish-breeding area posed by the Gwadar port extension plan, and the blocking of fishermen’s access to the sea by roads and other civil works.

Some of these issues are extremely emotive. For instance, the closure of the traditional fish harbour at Gwadar and the move to uproot the old settlement’s population from their historical habitat are bound to invite strong resistance. Both the town and the harbour are parts of the heritage of not only Balochistan but Pakistan as a whole and they cannot be disposed of with a wave of the bureaucratic wand.

Nobody can deny the possibility of the people being asked for sacrifices of the kind expected from Balochistan for the sake of absolutely immutable projects of national development. But in such situations, two conditions have to be met. Firstly, the project must be properly negotiated with the people that are going to be affected by it. Nothing ought to be presented as an executive order that the people have a duty to obey regardless of the cost to them. Secondly, the compensation offered to the people affected should not only be fair and adequate it should be as much to their convenience as possible.

That the Gwadar projects are being pushed under cover of the port’s defence and security needs does not affect the merits of the local community’s case. The security imperatives have to be demonstrated in a rational and convincing manner as mere assumptions are not enough. Besides, no defence/ security strategy will produce the desired result if it does not enjoy the community’s voluntary and wholehearted support.

While discussing the Baloch grievances regarding Gwadar’s future and the fisherfolk’s rights, references to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) cannot be avoided. Unfortunately, the project has been raised to the level of an ideological issue and anybody who asks for a reconsideration of any of its parts or even for no more than a clarification of one point or another is branded as a subversive element.

There is no justification for treating the project as an ideological imperative, and putting everything related to it beyond public discussion. This will mean that the project concept, its rationale, the method of implementation, and even the conduct of contractors hired for the supply of goods and labour cannot be subjected to critical scrutiny. This position is clearly untenable.

Like any other human undertaking, the CPEC project is liable to run into snags for a variety of reasons. The fact that China, whose friendship every patriotic Pakistani cherishes, is helping Pakistan to carry out the project with its grants, loans and technical collaboration is much to be welcomed, subject to an independent evaluation of the project’s feasibility and the estimates of its economic benefits.

To call for satisfaction over the correctness of the project’s design and its most efficient possible implementation does not amount to casting doubts on China’s sincerity and friendliness. Indeed, China should welcome any effort that could avert a souring of Pakistan-China relations as a result of any setback to the project. Therefore, we must de-ideologise the issue and welcome a thorough debate on the various aspects of the undertaking, especially its impact on the affected people’s interests.

The reservations and misgivings of the Balochistan people about the projects related to CPEC and Gwadar must be gracefully and patiently addressed, however groundless they may appear to the federal authority. Failure to do so will aggravate the Balochistan people’s feeling of deprivation and accelerate their alienation from the state.

The CPEC and Gwadar port projects offer the state an opportunity to remove the most fundamental grievance of the people of Balochistan. They have consistently complained of the centre’s reluctance or inability to listen to them, to treat them as a federating unit equal to other units, or simply to accept them as full citizens of Pakistan.

A sincere effort to accommodate Balochistan’s point of view on CPEC, the Gwadar port and fishermen’s concerns could persuade its people that the process of treating them as citizens with the same rights that are available to the people of other units has begun. It is an opportunity no responsible, democratic-minded authority would want to miss.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2016

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