ISAS Insights

A resolution tabled by Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican Congressman from California and with recent history of work against Pakistan, has suggested that the United States should lend support to the demand by some nationalists from Baluchistan to obtain independence for their province. These nationalists have been fighting the Pakistani state for decades. While the tabling of the resolution will not affect the American policy towards Pakistan, it has focused the attention of many in Pakistan on the country’s Baluchistan problem. The Baluch account for only 2.5 percent of Pakistan’s population of 180 million. However, they live in a sensitive area. Their province has borders with Afghanistan and Iran. A deep water port has been developed at Gwadar on the province’s Mekran coast that may provide access to the sea to China’s landlocked provinces in the country’s west. This paper suggests a number of steps that can be taken to address Baluchi resentment. Some of these have already been taken. These include the devolution of authority to the provinces by amending the constitution and by a near-doubling of the share of the province in the “divisible pool” – the resources mobilised by the federal government for use by the provinces. More needs to be done to bring in the Baluchi population in Pakistan’s expanding political space.