Volume 6, No. 12, December 2024
Editor: Rashed Rahman
Hingol Park and Air Force
Mohammad Ali Talpur
In my article “Testing Times” in Dawn I wrote about the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) seeking a huge slice of land in the Hingol Park for testing weapons. I share a part of it. In July 2006, a headline in Dawn read: “PAF swoops on Hingol National Park”. The accompanying report revealed: “The government is all set to slice land off…Hingol National Park, the country’s largest, as the PAF and another defence-related organisation eye the prized real estate near the estuary whose value is likely to increase phenomenally once the Gwadar port starts functioning. Sources in the Balochistan revenue department told Dawn that while the PAF has asked for around 80,000 acres, including 23,000 acres in the national park, [SUPARCO’s] demand is for eight mauzas.” A clarifying statement issued by the PAF’s public relations director said: “PAF has put up a proposal to the Government of Balochistan for acquisition of a piece of land to establish [sic] weapons trial range for JF-17 project. About 30 percent the area, proposed by the PAF, falls in the limits of the National Park.”
A little info about the JF-17 will be helpful. It is a lightweight, all-weather and multi-role Mach 1.6 aircraft. It is capable of carrying short-range, beyond-visual-range, anti-ship and anti-radiation missiles, as well as runway penetration bombs and cluster bombs. So when this plane is put through its paces and its weapons tested comprehensively, it is clearly going to be curtains for the flora and fauna in Hingol National Park, most of which have thrived undisturbed since the time of creation because of the isolation and remoteness of the area. Earlier the PAF had managed to acquire land for weapons testing in the Maslakh wildlife sanctuary in Pishin district, and consequently eliminated the protected chinkara and urial. Ironically Maslakh means slaughterhouse in Persian.
Hingol National Park is a veritable treasure trove of biodiversity as well as historical and cultural landmarks. Situated on the Makran coast some 190 kilometres west of Karachi and covering Lasbela, Awaran and Gwadar districts in Balochistan, the 619,043 hectares park is the largest in the region. The park offers spectacular historical and archaeological features including the Hinglaj/Nani Mandir pilgrimage site, a place marking the passage of Alexander the Great, the very old graves of Baloch tribes and mountain formations such as Princes of Hope and the Chandragup mud volcano. Then there are superb estuaries, beaches, coastal dunes and plains, salt flats, sand and clay mountains, riverine areas, mud volcanoes, mud vents and inland sand dunes.
In reply to my piece their spokesman Air Commodore Sarfaraz Khan wrote to Dawn: “Apropos Mir Muhammad Ali Talpur’s article, “Testing times” (May 13), I would like to present the facts to allay the unfounded apprehensions. The JF-17 Thunder aircraft, which is being co-developed and co-produced at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Kamra, with the help of Chinese Aircraft Industry, has to be converted to a weapon system from its present status of being only an aircraft. This necessitates initiation of exhaustive weapons’ tests and trials in Pakistan. The entire effort, if carried out in any foreign country, would entail exorbitant charges in precious foreign exchange. Moreover, all over the world, such trials are conducted over sea, or barren and uninhabited marshy land. The article by Mir Muhammad Ali Talpur is based on lack of information, misunderstanding and misconception. The absolute facts relating to the issue are as follows:
I hope that the above-mentioned facts will not only allay the unfounded apprehensions but also assure the nation that PAF, being a national organisation, is fully responsive to the sensitivities of the people and yet mindful of its extremely essential operational requirements.”
My answer to it was as follows: “This is apropos the letter of Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed Khan, Director, Media Affairs, Pakistan Air Force (May 18), regarding my article, “Testing times” (May 13). He has unjustly said: ‘The article by Mir Muhammad Ali Talpur is based on lack of information, misunderstanding and misconception.’ I had based my piece on the information and facts available in the national press, which had neither been refuted nor contradicted. I would also like to remind him of the clarification published under his name in the July 28, 2006 issue of Dawn in response to the previous day’s report by Bahzad Alam Khan regarding the PAF and Hingol Park. It said: ‘About 30 percent of the area, proposed by the PAF, falls in the limits of the National Park.’ The clarification now says: ‘The area of ‘Hingol National Park’ does not fall within the limits of Aghore Range; as such no fauna or flora is endangered.’ There is clearly a shift of stated position. A few questions require answers. The Hingol Park covers over 600,000 hectares (over 1.5 million acres). Will overflights be avoided in this area? Even if there will be no live bombing in the area, will not the sound of the aircraft disturb the wildlife in the environs? The PAF has the peregrine falcon as its insignia and they must know that in the west it is an offence to disturb it. Noise does adversely affect wildlife.
A new dimension, that of people’s displacement, has arisen since I wrote the piece in April. According to a report by Saleem Shahid in Dawn (May 4), this firing range entails displacement of people. It should be remembered that the issue of displacement has always been a sore point in relations between the people of Balochistan and the Centre. According to that report, Mohammad Aslam Bhootani, an elected member of that area and speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, said: “The people had been living in that area since time immemorial and asking them to leave when their area had been developed was unjust. The people will resist this move. We will not allow our people to be dislodged from their ancestral homes.” Mr Bhootani also said: “If the government wants to get rid of the people, it should chuck them into the sea. But we will not willingly vacate our lands.” Displaced people suffer interminably even if adequate compensation is made. Saving precious foreign exchange is commendable but a much higher priority has to be awarded to human and environmental assets. Firing ranges should not be a reason for disturbing either humans or the flora and fauna. He resigned or was shown the door a month after my letter in response to his lame refutation of my piece.
But those who do not care either for the people or the land readily hand over all to those who have done favours to them. On November 9, 2015, Provincial Minister for Information and Parliamentary Affairs Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal tabled the Balochistan Protection and Preservation of Forest and Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2015 in the provincial Assembly. The legislators moved to quickly pass the bill.
I wrote this under the heading “Gone in 300 seconds” in Naked Punch: The spineless and pusillanimous members of the selected Balochistan Assembly handed over 9,000 acres (36.42 sq km) of the protected Hingol National Park land to the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in record 300 seconds giving away 30 acres per second. Made me wonder how much time would they take to hand over Balochistan to anyone with enough clout to pay and intimidate them. The timing would be proportionate to the fear and greed that authority could instill in their hearts. This is indeed shameful and unbecoming for those who should be looking after Balochistan’s rights but then for those brought in for the specific purpose of kowtowing to Rawalpindi and Islamabad, this isn’t surprising. SUPARCO isn’t as innocuous as it appears; it is the set-up that is responsible for the Hatfs and Shaheens. It is a branch serving the military.
Balochistan’s land is greedily eyed. In November 2007 Sartaj Aziz asked the Balochistan government to sell 70,000 hectares to Arab Princes. He also asked for 500,000 acres of land in Sonmiani for a new port city for one rupee per acre. It isn’t surprising then that the armed forces already control about 12 million acres, constituting about 12 percent of total state land. The Sindh Assembly too gifted 9,000 acres to the army.
The agonising travails of the blighted Hingol Park continue because it is in Balochistan and not in Punjab. Potohar spread on 22,254 square kms (8,592 sq miles) is large too, so if 36.42 sq km were taken from it, it would hardly make a difference. But it is the hazard accompanying rocket testing that makes Hingol the first choice as it matters not to them who is hurt or who is displaced there. The issue here is that all this land-grab, exploitation and loot of resources takes place with the consent of those who say they are well-wishers and friends of the Baloch. The 9,000 acres of land was given the go ahead by the Balochistan Assembly. In it there are those who say they are there to protect the interests of the Baloch. The only interests they serve are their own personal interests. Saindak, CPEC, the Sonmiani things are done without consulting them but they do not have the spine to challenge these unlawful deals from which there is no benefit to the Baloch. They do not even protest at these injustices and tag along with their mentors in the hope of being given a chance to prove their loyalty.
Education and HDI in Balochistan
I tried to find the latest statistics on education, Human Development Index (HDI), maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rates but didn’t get much success so am giving old figures. They are, however, an indicator that is not only valid today for in some ways the situation has worsened since Pakistan’s economy is in the doldrums as most of the earnings are consumed for so-called defence.
Education
All the claims of education promotion in Balochistan were forcefully debunked by Farooq Sulehria in his well-researched op-ed in September 2013, “Education apartheid”, which proved that an undeclared apartheid is practiced against Balochistan. He had said, “In Punjab and the Punjab-dominated mainstream media, Baloch grievances are often dismissed on familiar pretexts. One clichéd excuse is that the Baloch Sardars impede development in the province. However, every time one looks into the structured discrimination Balochistan has been subjected to, one finds that it is not the anti-development Baloch Sardars but the ‘federation’ that has impeded progress in Pakistan’s biggest province.” He added that the education apartheid imposed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Balochistan is apparent, as since the inception, in the fiscal year 2002-03 to 2012-13, it has allocated a total of 737 projects worth Rs 157,102 million. Of these, merely 48 projects worth Rs 9,433 million were assigned to Balochistan’s seven universities. He stated that the Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Khuzdar, had received Rs 284 million (eight projects) in 10 years but Lahore’s University of Engineering and Technology was granted Rs 8,361 million (23 projects). Similarly, while Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences (LUAWMS) was given Rs 1,943 million (five projects) the University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, were granted Rs 1,815 million (21 projects) and Rs 2,647 million (25 projects) respectively. Likewise, Balochistan’s only women’s university received Rs 965 million while FJ Women’s University, Rawalpindi, the Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, and the Women’s University, Multan, were generously allotted Rs 879 million (10 projects), Rs 847 million (13 projects), and Rs 1,144 million (one project) respectively.
Sulehria added that the education apartheid that Balochistan suffers from becomes even more evident when the allocations for Islamabad are compared because this comparison nullifies the population difference argument. The two top beneficiaries of the HEC largesse there, the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) were granted Rs 15,205 million (22 projects) and Rs 7,373 million (28 projects) respectively, which incidentally are Rs 13,145 million more than the total allotted to Balochistan which was Rs 9,433 million. The total money allotted to Balochistan is less than half the amount allotted to NUST and CIIT. To repeat again so that nothing is missed, he said, the costs and number of projects awarded to these seven universities are: University of Balochistan, Quetta: Rs 2,135 million (16 projects), Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences: Rs 1,008 million (11 projects), Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology, Khuzdar: Rs 284 million (eight projects), Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University, Quetta: Rs 965 million (six projects), Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences (LUAWMS), Uthal: Rs 1,943 million (five projects), University of Turbat: Rs 1,580 million (one project), University of Loralai: Rs 1,518 million (one project).
Arguing the point, he said, “An immediate chauvinistic argument to dismiss these figures would be the population size of Balochistan. Since Punjab is huge in terms of its population, our critics would say it needs more allocations.” And added, “I will, therefore, not cite the number of projects the HEC has assigned to Punjab. Instead, let us compare sector-wise allocations. For instance, Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Khuzdar, has received Rs 284 million (eight projects) in 10 years but Lahore’s University of Engineering and Technology (UET) was granted Rs 8,361 million (23 projects). Again, one may cite the size of UET, Lahore. However, even UET, Taxila was given preference over BUET, Khuzdar. The former was granted Rs 1,100 million (20 projects).”
Similarly, while LUAWMS was given peanuts, the University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, were granted Rs 1,815 million (21 projects) and Rs 2,647 million (25 projects) respectively. Likewise, while Balochistan’s only women’s university received Rs 965 million, FJ Women University, Rawalpindi, the Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, and the Women University, Multan were generously allotted Rs 879 million (10 projects), Rs 847 million (13 projects) and Rs 1,144 million (one project) respectively. Even Kinnaird College was awarded two projects worth Rs 72 million. Regarding another aspect of this apartheid, Sulehria says that the HEC bureaucracy knowingly and maliciously twists procedures to favour Punjab, and over 60 percent Punjabis went abroad against its allocated 50 percent quota while the Baloch representation remained below its six percent quota.
All the solemnly declared intentions are nothing more than hogwash for the actual happenings in Balochistan on the ground are what really matter. Because of the massively warped allocations, no educational institution in Balochistan would be able to compete with those in Punjab. This ensures that the talent in Balochistan is snuffed out. This is how degree level educated students in Balochistan are discriminated against so what can one expect for those that the army claims to educate. Moreover, the elephant in the room here is the question what the army has got to do with the education of the Baloch or for that matter of others, because this is a civilian responsibility. The military operation in Balochistan is supplemented by a pernicious social engineering operation, which is primarily aimed at changing the ethos of Baloch society so that it becomes more tolerant and amenable to all sorts of humiliation, repression and exploitation meted out for the sake of the ‘national interest’. The conflict in Balochistan is about the Baloch interests, whereas the interests of strategic institutions and big business, consequently through social engineering and brute force establishment, want clones of collaborators in droves to make the exploitation of the resources of Balochistan easier.
(To be continued)