Balochistan is a land blessed by nature but ravaged by the emphatic greed and criminal empathy of man.

With its natural resources worth hundreds of billions of dollars it ranks amongst the worlds potentially richest regions, but its inhabitants live in abject poverty. Over 63 percent of its population languishes under the poverty line, 85 percent have absolutely no access to clean drinking water, and 70 percent have never seen the inside of a school. Natural gas from its fields powered the industrial and development juggernaut of the country for decades, yet it remains the countrys most under developed federating unit. It saw at least two major military actions (locals count six) against the people when they agitated for their rights. As if all this was not bad enough, those raising voices against this injustice have been going missing by the hundreds. Consequently, the locals have turned upon settlers who are predominantly of Punjabi origin, in a bid to settle scores with what they perceive as the oppressive Punjab-dominated establishment. Balochistan is caught in a vicious cycle of violent lawlessness.

The possibility of its breaking away never loomed larger. Can Balochistan be saved? Rather, can Pakistan be saved by resolving the Balochistan crisis? Yes, provided our political leadership adopts Balochistan as a numero uno priority, thinks prudently rather than emotionally, and moves without wasting another single day.

A day in Balochistans life is a lot more than a typical 24-hour time band. It is a lifetime. Another person could go missing, further stoking the fires of hatred and disenchantment. A day could see one more settler losing his life, or property, adding to the crippling climate of insecurity and fear. We have wasted enough days already.

The government must start talking, and to everyone. Even those elements, who currently have no desire to engage with the government must be approached. It will even have to talk to players who ostensibly have nothing to do with the crisis. We have a situation where one segment of insurgents is motivated by genuine grievances while another is pushing foreign agendas for self-serving vested interest.

Balochistan, unfortunately may no longer be a purely internal matter of Pakistan, as put by Prime Minister Gilani in his latest interaction with newspaper editors. The premier went into a huff when asked about the inevitability of engaging India, Afghanistan and the United States to end their meddling in Balochistan by withdrawing their overt and covert support for the insurgents. Spewing the usual rhetoric about the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs crossing the red line by discussing Balochistan, the PM thundered that there was no need to talk to any outsider. If only life were that simple.

2012 is not the 70s when a similarly strong insurgency had petered out. Then, the Baloch insurgents pouring into Afghanistan had not received tangible support either from Afghanistan, the Soviet Union or the Americans. This time it is different. India has jumped into the fray, a payback for our 90s jihad in Kashmir, amongst other considerations. And it is not just financing the insurgency movement in Balochistan, it is also investing billions of dollars in Afghanistan and influencing Pakistans increasingly anti-Pakistan narrative. Afghanistan for its own part is unhappy because it perceives us to be promoting anti-Kabul elements. The US is peeved because of our certain stances in the ongoing war on terror. Whether they are correct from Pakistans national perspective is not the question here. The ease of international travel, sustenance, and critical exposure of Baloch rebel leaders at critical global forums could not have been possible without the active support of the United States.

Foreign players are fishing in the troubled waters of Balochistan. We need to start clearing our own waters to minimise such exploitative opportunities. We must foster a conflict free environment and create a convergence of interests with the interfering powers. To have peace in Balochistan, it is imperative that we have peace in and with Afghanistan. That India and Pakistan move away from a destructive narrative to a constructive dialogue. There has to be more profit in peace than in acrimony. And the US too must gain more from playing with us rather than against.

The prime minister would be nave to believe that the Balochistan crisis was altogether bereft of external influences and could be resolved without courting the foreign players active in the background. When Khair Biar Murree openly states that the Baloch would rather be dependent on the Americans than Punjabis, then there is clearly an underlying reality, which must not be ignored.

First of all, however, we need to start putting our own house in order. All political stakeholders must be aggressively pursued and be brought back into the Balochistan dialogue. To cite one example, Akhtar Mengal was the chief minister Balochistan during Nawaz Sharifs power days in Islamabad but today he is living in exile in the UAE, forced into adopting a separatist stance by the compulsion of circumstances. Everyone like him, the Bugtis, Murrees etc must be made a stakeholder in the system otherwise they will naturally favour carving out their own new system based on a new Balochistan.

The government should also announce a general amnesty. Surely questions will arise about differentiating between crimes against the state and the citizens (read: settlers) but the government could take care of that part through generous compensations. It would not be an

ideal solution for the grieved but compromises may have to be made for the countrys larger good, and that is why it is essential that such compensations are extremely generous.

Will development initiatives and amnesty bring insurgents down from the hills and back from Afghanistan and spell success? No, because a pull factor alone will not work in Balochistan as it must be complemented by the push factor, which Ill discuss a little later. Development work must begin in earnest. Immediate additional resources and incentives must be allocated for Balochistan. The multi-billion-rupee Aghaz-e-haqooq-e- Balochistan package never realised its potential and nobody knows what happened to the Rs250 million development funds given to every member of Balochistan assembly. This trend must cease. Excellent recommendations have been made by different parliamentary commissions on Balochistan, which if implemented would yield immense political dividends.

The rule of the FC must give way to the rule of law. The only thing that should go missing from Balochistan is lawlessness, and not its people. The nature of resistance is always decided by that of the oppression. For a positive and meaningful change to happen, Pakistan will have to change its own paradigm of being a security state to a secure one.

A strong pull factor could be created but it cannot deliver without the push factor involving Afghanistan, India and the United States. The spectre of an independent Balochistan, with its strategically located long coastline and trillions of rupees worth natural wealth, is too tempting an option for the agitating elements to give up without persuasion. The public and international face of this insurgency is none other than the younger crop of the traditional ruling sardars and chieftains, used to being the most important stakeholders in the power equation. They will only come back to the negotiating table if deprived of the material and political support of their international backers. And India, Afghanistan and the US will create this critical push factor only if Pakistan develops mutually beneficial bilateral relations.We need the three to end their open and secret support for the insurgents and thus push the angry Baloch leadership towards an honest and fair dialogue with the Pakistan government.