KARACHI: Balochistan: Victim of Greed or Grievances?, a book by Commodore Dr Mohammad Ihsan Qadir, was launched at the Bahria University campus on Thursday.

Speaking first at the event, Vice Chancellor of Ziauddin University Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui said: “Balochistan is usually referred to as the mineral-rich area of Pakistan. But can these minerals ensure a daily square meal to the poor of the province?” He stressed that minerals or resources needed to be used for the people. “The living conditions in Balochistan are shocking,” he said. “This is where the book comes in and suggests solutions to the problems of the province.” Dr Siddiqui also said the people in Pakistan had conditioned themselves to thinking in a five-year frame and there’s a need to encourage futuristic studies.

Former ambassador Najmuddin Shaikh said that a 230-page book having a 20-page bibliography meant it was well-researched. However, he also pointed out proofing errors in the book “which I think will be corrected in the next edition.”

Speaking about the province, and specifically the grievance aspect addressed by Dr Qadir in his book, he said: “It is hugely because of the iron rule of the sardars and little effort to rid the Baloch of the burden.” He added that the ‘A’ and ‘B’ areas in Balochistan “should be under police control”. He then spoke about corruption and shared an oft-repeated joke. “It is said that starting from Frontier (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) corruption remains 20pc. By the time one reaches Balochistan, it climbs to 80pc. But with (former finance secretary of Balochistan Mushtaq) Raisani’s arrest, it seems it has crossed 95pc.” He added: “Corruption anywhere impacts the rest of the country due to decline in governance”.

Referring to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), without naming it, he said: “How will this game-changing development impact the eastern and western routes? What vocational training or skill-building practices are we going to introduce to encourage and involve the youth of Balochistan?” He said those were the points worth pondering on.

The chief guest of the event and rector of Bahria University, retired vice admiral Tanveer Faiz discussed “how the mineral-rich province and coastal belt has been surrounded with political, military and social conflicts.” Then he shared a joke about a visiting American expert to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). “We were asked to accompany the American expert to various events where he gave lectures on it. By the end of his trip, someone asked him how many times he had visited Fata? He said he had never been there. So, I hope our friend Dr Qadir has been to Balochistan,” he added lightly.

The author of the book, Dr Qadir, said he was asked why he chose to write a book on Balochistan. “This question took me back 25 years when I visited Gwadar as part of the navy. One of the locals in the area market kept on asking me which country I was from and I said to him that we both were from Pakistan. I chose to engage with him.”

The fact that it was the first book launch at the university was pointed out by speaker after speaker who said book writing should be encouraged.

The launch was organised by the National Centre for Maritime Policy Research.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017