i chapter.

Causes and Consequences of Political Instability in Pakistan: A

The Muslims all over the world are suffering from socio-political, socio-economic, internal and

external threats

The present research was based on secondary sources and official websites including; the

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Population Association of Pakistan, Newspapers, journals, published research

papers, unpublished dissertations and some other related publications on the subject etc. The results reveal

that the political instability in Balochistan is because of the long and non harmonious relationship between the

federal and province, unjustified distribution of resources, federally controlled development projects and

policies and incapable provincial leadership. Strong emphasis was made to introduce democratic dialogues,

equality and Justice based policies for the province, to bring it at mainstream and to address the
backwardness,

claims of local people as well as bring the harmony for larger interest of nation.

Muhammad usama
ii chapter

INTRODUCTION

Balochistan’s history since the time of the foundation

of the country represents an unending narrative of the

incessant conflicts unfortunately. The long standing

resentments dating back to its merger with Pakistan have

led to the present crisis in the province and the whole

country. Balochistan was divided into two parts

control of some areas was transferred to the British

government in the form of treaty and during the drawl of

British forces from the subcontinent of India, a meeting

was held under chairmanship of viceroy Lord

Mountbatten about the future status of Kalat state on

August 4th 1947 where, Governor General of Pakistan Mr.

Jinnah, Liaqat Ali khan, Khan of Kalat, Prime minister of

Kalat state and the constitutional representatives of

Pakistan and British government declared Kalat as

independent state.

“The government of Pakistan accepts the princely

state Kalat as sovereign and independent state, it has

treaty of relationship with British Government

Significance of the Study: The beginning of 21st and later

part of the 20th century has seen a remarkable growth in

the level of popular concern for peace, trade, integration,

solidarity and social cohesion, etc., which have come as

a result of the advent of the political stabilization in

Balochistan and Pakistan as well. It is becoming

increasingly clear that if the present situation is not

confronted immediately, we stand the risk of having

Objectives of the Study: The main objective of the present

study is;

To explore the causes of political instability in

Balochistan.

Other objectives are;

To investigate the factors responsible for political

instability in Balochistan.

To measure the consequences and solution of

political instability.
v chapter

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Although the writer has consulted some articles,

research papers and also got awareness and knowledge

about Balochistan-Pakistan. The present research is

based on secondary sources and some official websites

like the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Population

Association of Pakistan, Newspapers, etc. Most of the

research is on secondary sources. Several journals,

textbooks, unpublished dissertations and some other

related publications on the subject are consulted.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Political instability has been attributed to a variety of

social, political, economic and environmental causes

including racial and ethnic tensions, food scarcity and

food price increases, variations in international,

commodity prices, economic shocks, climate change and

rainfall shocks and demographic changes [4,6]. Poor

transport and communication infrastructure is a big hurdle

in the progress of the province. Illiteracy, injustice,

oppression of women, ignorance of the individual right

are the socio-political evils that prevail. The Social Policy

Development Centre (2005) report discovered that the

percentage of the population living in a high degree of

deprivation stands highest in Balochistan as compared to

population of other provinces as 88percent in

Balochistan, 51 percent in the KPK, 49 percent in Sindh

and 25 percent in Punjab. According to poverty-related

reports, the percentage of the population living below the

poverty line stands at 63 percent in Balochistan. This

again, is the highest among all other provinces 26 percent

in Punjab, 29 percent in the KPK and 38 percent in Sindh.

These factors are mutually reinforcing and continue to

for economic backwardness of Province. He further

mentioned that other factors of unrest were the ongoing

insurgency, mutilated bodies, missing persons and

sectarian violence. These were the biggest contributors to

the socio-economic adversity in the province. Property

dealers were also reported to have been involved in

increasing panic to grab prime properties from the fleeing

population. Businessmen and the teachers hailing from

other ethnicities were migrating from the province

because of fear and insecurity.

Balochistan is having the large deposits of oil and

gas, but unfortunately it remains poorest through p for the

welfare of people due to not having any job’s or market

opportunity, the per capita income of province is lower

than others which ultimately resulted in civil disobedience

[16]. The issue of provincial autonomy is a historical fact

in Pakistan’s politics. Sindh and Balochistan provinces

always demanded for this right, as we have the example of

one unit scheme. In case of Balochistan this demand is

Nationalist and guerrilla warriors were main

hindrances between the mega projects and federal

government because they says that the federal

government explore the resources from Balochistan and

wants to feed the other province, that’s why the

nationalist and gorilla warriors strongly oppose these

projects, so the Balochistan will not be developed to

upcoming hundreds years from the same methodology.

The federal government has failed to get confidence of

local people on the mega project that’s why the Para

military forces have been deployed to forcibly construct

these projects without will of local people and which

results in unrest and enmity to state [24].

The responsibility for the whole condition of

province also goes to the local politicians; they were more

involved for bringing the backwardness in the province as

compare to Central government. From beginning to till

present, all have tried to cash from emerging violent

situations of the time just to get the awards and well

jousters from the federal and they remain in the favor of

federal policies when they were in power. The federal also

make happy to political leaders of time by providing the

CONCLUSION

Muslim countries around the world face some form of

political conflict that outweighs those that enjoy peace

and stability. Terrorism and political instability in Muslim

world turn society socially unstable. Apart from terrorism,

international, regional and civil wars, ethnic cleansing,

declarations the strong link between political instability

and terrorism may explain the difficulty in separating the

two in some of the literature. Balochistan has no stable

political and social conditions although having its own

strategically importance due to its coastal area and deep

sea route. It has world’s third largest gold and copper

 reserves, gas reserves and different minerals, yet it’s the

poorest and least developed area in Pakistan. It provides

natural gas to Pakistan since 1952 but still only eight

districts of Balochistan have access to their natural gas.

There is high ratio of poverty and lack of education,

health facilities. People of province have no access to safe

drinking water and have suffered from different natural

disasters like earthquake and flood in past few years.

Infant mortality rate is very high in Balochistan. Human

rights violations are major problems of Balochistan.

Today Balochistan lacks good social interaction, well

economic, educational and political conditions. Things

will not change unless the social workers, journalists,

policy makers, civil and military establishment,

bureaucracy tries to know fundamental factors which

cause social, political and economic backwardness in

Balochistan.
xii chapter

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