As CPEC commences, Pakistan Navy has raised a special battalion to protect Chinese citizens from Pakistanis. While much of the rest of the nation anxiously awaits the Chinese investment to transform them into rich, many Baloch are actually worried that they are being left out of the benefits.
“We are not against the Gwadar deep sea port, CPEC or any other developmental project but if it is meant to marginalize the native people and make them like Red Indians then we will not allow it to happen,” Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmad Muhammad Shahi told The Nation.
The obvious response should be to address Baloch concerns and make sure that they are not marginalised. However the sad reality appears to be very different.
پاکستان کے صوبہ بلوچستان سے جبری طور پر لاپتہ کیے گئے افراد کے لواحقین کا کہنا ہے کہ سال 2015 کے دوران صوبے بھر سے مزید 463 افراد جبری طور پر لاپتہ ہوئے ہیں۔
Thousands of Baloch have been arrested with no reason given.
’آٹھ ہزار افراد کی گرفتاری کی بات تو اخبار میں آئی ہے لیکن اس بات کی کوئی وضاحت نہیں کی گئی کہ یہ کون لوگ ہیں اور ان کو کن مقدمات میں گرفتار کیا گیا ہے۔‘
PM has said that ‘Pakistan’s path to prosperity starts from Balochistan‘. To succeed, though, it must be understood that it is Pakistan’s prosperity and not Punjab’s prosperity as many fear is the true aim of CPEC.
