By Kashif Humayun
In the continuity of Preceptor’s special report on Balochistan in which the group elaborated on historical perspective of Baloch deprivation, and political and security dynamics of Balochistan, now let us touch on the economical prospective , the International pipelines carrying the naturals resources from Central Asian states.
Balochistan has been neglected throughout the years for reasons of the political domination of Baloch tribal lords. They have been supported and funded by state and personal interest of the elite from within and from foreign ckountries. The US congress is not discussing Balochistan issue for the first time the study was able to trace back the existence of such interests starting from by 1990’s.
(See U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS, FEBRUARY 12, 1998: here)
The extraordinary geological presence of Balochistan as transit route of NATO supplies to Afghanistan and long costal area connecting the international waters with the priceless natural recourses of central Asian republics, Balochistan is situated at the Energy Corridor of Asia and will become the largest export terminal of natural gas and oil recourses of Asia.(Extracts of presentation by MD SSGC in Energy Conference held in Islamabad in 2003)
“NATO Forces have permanent Basis in Afghanistan they have permanent basis in Iraq, they are still in Kuwait and are building permanent basis in Uzbekistan and they actually have four basis in Georgia, if you draw a map which connects the dots between all of these military basis established after the cold war what you see is that the International forces has been covering the 90% of Globe’s energy recourses in terms of natural gas and oil for a group of Business individuals”.
Not only the foreign government were keenly interested in that area but the individuals like Gorge W Bush, Dick Cheney, Hamid Karzai who are running their own business empires have used the NATO forces and American troops for their personal business interests.
In 1997 when Gorge W. Bush was the governor of Texas a delegation of Taliban leaders of Afghanistan were flew to Houston to meet the executive of UNOCAL to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea, this trip of Afghan Leaders was only covered by British press (BBC).
Pakistan has signed a pipeline project with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan (TAP) during Prime Minister Jamali’s tenure, this pipeline will be completed with a cost of (Aprox. US$ 2 Billion), Hamid Karzai has already served in UNOCAL as advisor to get his share of benefit, and who else gets the benefit from the UNOCAL pipeline deal is the no 1 contributors to the Bush Presidential campaign some peoples from ENRON group, on the other hand Halliburton gets the Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day UNOCAL signs the pipeline deal a company headed by Dick Cheney.
Now Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) has been completed at Iran’s end but Pakistan works is still behind the schedule. The future may find heavy damages on Pakistan as the German company is lacking behind.
If you study the maps of Foreign Forces basis in central Asia you will see that these troops are securing the route of that particular pipeline which carries the natural gas and oil from Caspian Sea and according the proven reserves the oil and gas present in the depth of Caspian Sea is more thenUS$ 10 Trillion , so the top personalities of American political horizon are directly or indirectly involved to get their piece of cake.
Conclusion:
A school of thought term these as conspiracy theories, but history has proved that some of these theories become reality when they get suitable environment. Balochistan, needs all type of analysis. There is a need to understand the interest of few who want a loose security control in the area. Security crisis will justify need of force to secure the economic and energy lines and will only justify there presence till deep and areas away from these lines remain disturbed. Such forces will never like a strong security arrangement. Minimizing role of Pakistan army and now turning to FC may be steps in same direction. A loose levies arrangement which remains under control of a sardar in a limited area is probable a dream come true arrangement for such elements. It is important for the decision makers of Balochistan to understand the situation and to identify their Friends and Foe. The patriotic Baloch must move to watch interest of general public of Balochistan and their own interest rather than to protect the Foreign interest and personal business interests of business tycoons.
Latest Tweets