This federation is in jeopardy. There is a lot of pressure on the national integration links necessary for the federation to work. The inability to have a real voice in the management and valuation of resources like coal, gas, and the ports and the rejection of political rights have stoked the flames of resentment. A decision to give the military control of land in Sindh and KP for corporate farming has only served to heighten this dissatisfaction. In KP and Balochistan, the animosity stems from Islamabad’s dominance over the provinces’ chances for cross-border commerce.
Traditional political leadership is no longer relevant in KP and Balochistan due to socioeconomic change. The young people, who are furious and maybe even alienated, have taken up the torch. Balochistan seems unlikely to accept solutions that fall within Pakistan’s jurisdiction. Reducing the gravity of their predicament by attributing it to Indian incitement to terrorism and revolt ignores the historical and underlying factors that have contributed to their suffering. The current rebellion is being fueled by decades of Baloch grievances, even if this is accurate.
The future of Pakistan depends on finding a workable solution to these demonstrations, which requires the creation of a new federal system. The provinces transferred some authority to the federal government, so it’s important to keep that in mind. To make this work, the Constitution has to be rewritten so that the provinces may have greater power than they had before the 18th Amendment. The provinces holding vital resources (such coal, oil, gas, and important minerals) would have to obtain complete control of these assets as part of this realignment.
Even with all its oil, this American state wouldn’t be prosperous if Pakistan’s political and economic framework were transplanted in oil-rich Texas (or in federations like Canada or Australia). Instead, businesspeople in Washington and New York would be living it up. Despite the corruption of the provincial government, the people of Pakistan do not really own the provinces that contain Pakistan’s most valuable resources, unlike the wealth of Texas, which belongs to the people of that state.
If Pakistan wants to remain a sovereign nation in the future, it will need a new federal structure.
Importantly, while the Punjab government can establish its own goals and plans for the province’s development, provinces like Balochistan and Sindh, which rely heavily on their coastline and mineral wealth, are essentially beholden to the federal government and hence cannot formulate their own growth strategy. The rejection of consistent and prompt payments of pledged net hydel income also affects KP’s gas.
The claim that Balochistan’s provincial government receives a “modest” portion of the port profits and that other provinces’ governments are involved in federal decisions on these issues through the Council of Common Interests is not very convincing. It fails to give them the recognition they deserve as owners and gives them too little power to decide how to use, sell, or lease their assets. An efficient CCI, rather than a Special Investment Facilitation Council, should accompany the recognition of such rights.
Officials from the government are upset that some people are getting an unfair advantage from gas and coal because of how narrowly Article 158 is interpreted. This, they say, leads to wasteful usage and is unjust to other consumers. This conveniently ignores the fact that Punjab uses Section 144 to restrict wheat trade, allowing the province to purchase wheat below market value and subsidize its consumption for its own residents.
There is more injustice to come. Balochistan has a long history of selling its gas to other provinces at prices much below world prices, which is mirrored in the nominal royalty payments on this scarce resource. In contrast, Punjab and Sindh have been known to sell cotton, wheat, and related products to KP and Balochistan at prices higher than world prices. Hence, the provinces need to legally own all minerals and get fair compensation for them on a global scale. After all, federal and provincial policymakers defend global pricing for other goods on the grounds that they are privately manufactured and sold and that sound economic policy should not discourage productive investment by instituting artificially low prices.
Since the federal agencies in Balochistan hire private consultants and contractors to carry out their projects, Islamabad should halt many of its own initiatives in the region, in part because it claims it lacks the resources to do so. Among the federal programs are the Saindak and Reko Dik projects, provincial highways, and the Gwadar and Gadani projects, which are in collaboration with the Chinese. Because it is unwilling to reduce its size and address the discord between its growing role and mandate and its actual size, Islamabad will not relinquish duties that should be carried out by subordinate governmental formations.
Also, it’s funny how they say we need to stop the corrupt provincial government from stealing money. Those behind it aren’t honest, and they aren’t answering to the people of the province whose tax dollars are funding a variety of initiatives that the provincial government may not give the same level of attention. If this theory is followed to its natural conclusion, we should still be the colony of the good and honest Britons.
Hence, a real federal system, rather than constructing a political structure based on an incorrect concept of ‘supreme national interest,’ is the solution to the current unequal arrangement. To stop and turn around this slide before there is nothing more to be salvaged, there is a brief window of chance that is available.
