Pakistani leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman warned Pakistan's parliament that 5-7 districts in Balochistan are beyond state control.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Is Pakistan on the verge of being split again?
00:18Pakistani leaders sensational claim in Pakistani parliament.
00:28Maulana Fazlur Rehman warns of Bangladesh 2.0 in Balochistan.
00:48Baloch uprising puts Pakistan on edge.
01:02Khyber Pakhtunkhwa up in arms.
01:08Pakistan's western front burning is our top focus on India First.
01:18So is the situation in Pakistan as bad as Maulana Fazlur Rehman is making it out to be?
01:24Does Pakistan's state's writ no longer run in parts of the rest of Balochistan province or even in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa?
01:34Is Pakistan sitting on a ticking time bomb?
01:38Which its army and now the state have actually no idea how to defuse.
01:44We seek answers.
01:46Tilak Deveshar, former Additional Secretary Research and Analysis Wing, member of the National Security Advisory Board and author of a book on Balochistan joins me on India First as does Arzu Kazmi from Pakistan.
01:58I'm Gaurav Sawant. As always, let's get started with the headlines on India First.
02:02Stormy day one of the Delhi Assembly BJP vs Aam Aadmi Party over alleged Ambedkar photo swap.
02:14Chief Minister Rekha Gupta says portraits have only been rearranged.
02:20Delhi government to table the CAG report that allegedly implicates the Aam Aadmi Party tomorrow.
02:28Amidst USAID showdown, Finance Ministry says no US funds for voter turnout last year.
02:40Reveals a $750 million funds from US used in welfare projects.
02:48Prime Minister Narendra Modi hits out at Lalu Yadav over Kumbh remark says Jangal Raj people are troubled by the congregation at Prayag Raj.
03:02Yogi Adityanath slams the opposition says pigs saw dirt, vultures only saw dead bodies at the Kumbh.
03:10India today's Operation Dunkey impact licenses of 40 Amritsar-based travel agents revoked for facilitating illegal travel to the United States.
03:24Notices issued to 270 others by the Punjab Police.
03:30Intelligence agencies in Pakistan warn of an Islamic State plot to kidnap foreigners at the Champions Trophy.
03:44The group is reportedly conducting surveillance at key locations.
03:48A statement made by a Pakistani political leader on the floor of the house, on the floor of Pakistan's National Assembly, that's Pakistan's Parliament, has said the caramonk pigeons.
04:08Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islami Fazl group, a member of Parliament, he's warned the Pakistani army, he's warned the Pakistani state that Pakistan is on the verge of losing parts of Balochistan.
04:25There is no army, there is no police in five to seven districts of the largest province of Pakistan.
04:30But it's not just Balochistan he's warning about. There's trouble that's simmering even in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
04:37So all along Pakistan's western front, in the southern part there's Balochistan, in the northern part there's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
04:44So is Pakistan making the same mistake that it did in Danish Pakistan in 1971?
04:50Genocide against civil society members both in KPK and in Balochistan as is being alleged.
04:58We bring you more in this report.
05:01As Baloch freedom fighters routinely target Pakistani security forces in Balochistan, a senior Pakistani political leader stood up in Pakistan's Parliament, the National Assembly, and warned the government that Pakistan was at risk of being split again.
05:26Balochistan's five to seven districts are in a position that if they announce their freedom, then the next day their request will be accepted in the United Nations and Pakistan will be considered divided.
05:45The statement was made on the floor of the house and for the past one week an embarrassed Shahbaz Sharif government is trying to brush ground realities under the carpet.
05:56But the Maulana's warning is clear. Neither Pakistan Army nor the police have any control over five to seven districts in the largest province of Pakistan by size.
06:10What is even more alarming for Pakistan is the fact that its dream project with China, the CPEC or the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that ends at the Gwadar port has now become a major bone of contention between the government and the people in Balochistan.
06:32An international airport has been built. Not a single person from Gwadar has ever been admitted to the airport. Not for security, not for security. The rest of the posts are stolen.
06:46The recently inaugurated Gwadar airport hasn't brought either cheer or additional flights to Gwadar. Locals in Balochistan are unhappy at not being hired for either the construction or the operations of the airport.
07:05Railways and road connectivity remains a work in progress as does the construction of a 300 megawatt power project that is awaiting government clearance. Power supply from Iran is insufficient to encourage investment in Balochistan.
07:26The projects that have been built here have not been of much benefit to the people. People have not been hired. The airport is non-functional. The port is not working. When it is not working, how will people get employment?
07:47To make matters worse for Pakistan, the situation in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province or what was the rest of North West Frontier province has taken a turn from the bad to the worse.
08:01And there are many areas where Pakistani security forces are either unwilling or unable to check the writ of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an outfit ISI trained for decades. For Pakistan, trouble is intensifying all along its western front. Bureau report, India Today.
08:32So what should one make of the warning of Maulana Fazlur Rehman? Are Pakistan army jackboots actually crushing civil liberties movement both in Balochistan and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? Is the Pakistan army powerless against the armed Baloch freedom fighters in Balochistan and of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan now armed with the latest weapons and ammunition? And is Pakistan on the verge of being split again as he puts it?
08:59Joining me on India First is Tilak Deveshwar, author of Pakistan, the Balochistan Conundrum, member of the National Security Advisory Board. Arzu Kazmi is a journalist who joins us from Pakistan. But Mr. Deveshwar, what do you make of Maulana Fazlur Rehman's statement on the floor of the house in the parliament of Pakistan? Is he exaggerating or is he warning the state to open their eyes? There's trouble ahead in Balochistan.
09:25Thank you for having me on your show. You see, you must realize that Maulana Fazlur Rehman is a very seasoned politician. Whatever he says does not say lightly. In fact, I would rate him as one of the most astute politicians in Pakistan today. So when he gets up and says in the National Assembly, he said it very deliberately, choosing his words very carefully. So I think these words should be taken very seriously.
09:52But let me also remind you that he's not the first politician who has said that. Last year, Mr. Aftab Mengel, he wanted to speak in the National Assembly. He was prevented from speaking for two days to discuss the situation in Balochistan. Out of frustration, he went outside and resigned from the National Assembly. And while resigning, he said something quite similar to what Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said.
10:17He said that the situation is out of control. The decisions will now be made by the boys in the hills. The horses have bolted from the stable and you can close the door. But the horses have bolted, you know, many things like that. But because he comes from a Baloch party, because he comes from a Baloch party, what he said made the headlines for one day and then not taken seriously thereafter.
10:39What Maulana has said.
11:09I think I agree with Maulana Fazlur Rehman. And you also know this, Gaurav, that we have talked many times and we talk a lot about KPK as well, that the people there are also saying that the army and the police should leave from here and they will deal with whatever it is.
11:33But for Balochistan, as a journalist, I feel that we ourselves are not able to visit there. And what Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said, there is a lot of weight in it. You can say that he said the right thing and he said it very boldly while standing in the National Assembly.
11:50And I still feel that the Pakistan army and the government of Pakistan have no hold in Balochistan. And there are only issues of missing persons going on there. They have not even told the mainstream media that we do not get news from there. If you look at the mainstream media, they are not allowed to broadcast the news from Balochistan.
12:17So I think the situation is very critical and the government will have to look at it this way. Otherwise, as you said, we will go back to the 1971 situation.
12:47They have withdrawn some soldiers, we are told, and put them in KPK and in Balochistan. But can they, one, either resort to genocide like they did in East Pakistan in 1971 or can the Pakistan army completely lose control of Balochistan or KPK?
13:05You see, either of the options that you have mentioned, let me talk about genocide first. The current Chief Minister of Balochistan, Sarfaraz Bhukti, when he was the Home Minister in 2017, he has remarks that have been recorded and published in newspapers when he said that the only solution to the security problem in Balochistan is genocide of the Baloch.
13:29Now he is talking about genocide in 2017 and today he is the Chief Minister. So what do you think he is going to be doing to simmer down the situation? So the Pakistan army continues to be extremely strong.
13:45But the difference is that now the Baloch freedom fighters have got access to as sophisticated weaponry which the Americans left behind in Afghanistan. Thermal imaging, light vision, scopes, better small arms. So they are now in a better position to take on the Pakistan army than they were in the last 20 years.
14:07So now if you add these two and then you also factor in the fact that civil society has come to its fore. They have been launching large protest marches from Quetta to Islamabad and all over Balochistan.
14:25So the civil society has now also got into the act and the Pakistan army for one does not know and cannot handle a civil society protest that is peaceful. And so you know it's a real very potent cocktail of anti-Pakistan sentiments which has taken root in Balochistan, deep roots in Balochistan.
14:53And unless the army and the politicians adopt a different strategy rather than shooting their way out of this, I really fear that what Mulana has said is going to come out true.
15:02Is there a time frame in your appreciation when it may come true?
15:07It's very difficult to talk about time limits. People's movement gain traction because nothing can stand against them. Now since we don't get any ground reportage from Balochistan, it's very difficult sitting here to be able to say when it will fructify.
15:24But one thing is clear and I mentioned this in my book too, that if the Pakistan state does not compromise with the Baloch, then it is curtains.
15:34Will the Pakistan Punjabi Muslim, the army and leaders like Nawaz Sharif or Shahbaz Sharif, do they consider it beneath their dignity before I bring in Arzu Kazmi once again?
15:47Sir, do they consider it beneath their dignity to deal either with the Baluchis or the Sindhis or the Pathans?
15:54You see in case of Balochistan, politically Balochistan is totally unimportant. It has only 16 members of the National Assembly, which is less than the representation from Karachi and Lahore.
16:05So politically the Baloch don't matter. Hence the attention of the mainstream politicians in Punjab is not focused on Balochistan at all.
16:15The army has been dealing with Balochistan since 1948. The last 70 years it's the army more than the politicians.
16:23So the mess which is there in the fact that they can't control the situation or seek a political solution is because of the dominant presence of the army, the rangers and the entire paramilitary paraphernalia which is over there.
16:39Arzu, the problem is not just the armed freedom fighters, the images that we're also showing of an undated attack on the Pakistani army, but also civil society movements and women leading these civil society movements where they're called I think half widows or half brides because they don't know whether their husbands are dead or alive.
17:03Does the Pakistani government have a roadmap to deal with this? And the question that I'd also put to Mr. Deveshwar, what about the attitude of the Pakistani, Punjabi, Muslim in the army? Do they even care about the Balochis?
17:18I think they don't care about the Balochis or from Balochistan, Balochistan people because I visited them at Islamabad, Islamabad Press Club.
17:31And last time when Dr. Maram Baloch came to protest for a missing person's issues, the place where they used to set up their tents has been completely demolished so that no one from Balochistan can come and protest there again.
17:48No one from the government goes and visits them. Unfortunately, the government of Balochistan also considers it useless in a way because the people there who are in that assembly are Balochis, but they don't do anything for their people.
18:05They just want to put a flag in front of their car, get a ministry, that's it. After every few days it is shown on TV, they make a few people sit and say that they have put weapons. These are the people who are from BLA or from some other group and they have put weapons and they want to come to the mainstream with the government of Pakistan.
18:24So this is a kind of fake narrative that is being shown here again and again, Gaurav, and I don't think they are serious about this at all. Otherwise, at least the issue of missing persons that Dr. Maram Baloch is protesting could have been addressed, but this is not happening either.
18:54Gaurav, is the Chinese money sunk quite like Pakistan Naval ship, that submarine Ghazi in 1971?
19:06Actually, the CPEC, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has been languishing for the last 5-6 years. At its peak, the Chinese were supposed to invest $62 billion. I don't think they have invested more than $22 billion or $24 billion and there will be no fresh investment coming.
19:24In the last 6 months, ministers from Pakistan and China, they meet and they talked about CPEC-2 and they talked about a whole lot of other things, but actually on the ground, no fresh investment has come in because the Chinese and the Chinese banks have also realized now that this is sending good money after bad money because the possibility of returns is diminishing.
19:47Pakistan can't pay. It is dependent on the loans they are getting from China to boost up the foreign exchange reserves. So, the so-called investment in CPEC is actually, I don't see how, the negotiation which was done initially, the rate of return of these power projects is something like 20% to 22%. So, the electricity produced is so expensive that people can't buy. So, some power plants are not working anymore because they can't sell the electricity.
20:16So, the Chinese are pretty smart and they know exactly what is the financial status in Pakistan. So, yes, I think that CPEC is going nowhere and I don't see how it can be revived because Pakistan's entire economy itself is in a very slippery slope.
20:31Does that mean that China will not let go of that money? Will they take Gwadar by force or can they take that entire territory from POJK down to Gwadar by force?
20:42They can't do it by force. They won't want to their all-weather friend.
20:47No, quite like the East India Company.
20:50No, but they are working on two proposals. One is to have Chinese troops on the ground in defense of CPEC which Pakistan is of course resisting.
21:02Second, that the Gwadar should be handed over to them at a 99-year lease, something like what they've done with Hambantota in Sri Lanka.
21:10There again, Pakistan is resisting. I don't see how much longer they can resist because if you're on the back foot, if you're dependent only on the money that China has parked with you,
21:21China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, these are the countries that have parked money with Pakistan to boost their foreign exchange reserves.
21:26If you're so dependent and if China says, no, we will not roll over the funds, even the IMF is going to pull back.
21:34And then Pakistan will go in for a default, which will really shake up the economy in a very bad way.
21:41And Arzoo, there are people in Pakistan, we just played out some reactions from Gwadar when that airport came up.
21:48People are saying, humko toh peon ki naukri nahi mili, security guard ki naukri nahi mili.
21:51Now they're saying that road connectivity nahi hai, rail connectivity nahi hai, 300 megawatts ke power project aana tha, wo nahi aaya.
21:59Toh, kya yeh poora CPEC aur Gwadar port, ek bilkul dead project, stillborn baby hai?
22:06Dekhe, ab toh kisi ko bhi koi hope nahi hai CPEC project se aur jo aisa aapne bhi dikhaya apne clips mein,
22:13jo log baat kar rahein waha ke, toh definitely yeh hi kuch chal raha hai.
22:17Unko koi ek zarasa bhi, koi benefit nahi hua hai CPEC ka aur log interested nahi hai.
22:22Unko yeh bhi hai, jo BLA aur doosre log attack karte.
22:25Unko yeh bhi hai, ki yeh apne humari zameen jo hain hum se pooche bagar, aapne China ko dedi hai aur uske baad us baat ka unko koi fayda nahi hai.
22:32Toh definitely, log ab is baat ko samajh rahein.
22:35Thanks to the social media and YouTube channels ke unki wajah se unka tak kaafi baatein gayi hai.
22:40Even aapka channel bhi, jo YouTube pe aur sab jagah dekha jaata hai.
22:43Lekin issi wajah se shayad establishment bahot pareshan hai aur yeh social media down karke behten ke koi dekh na paye.
22:49But, aap logon mein awareness aa rahi hai.
22:51Balochistan ke log apne liye khade ho rahein aur mujhe nahi lagta, ke ab unko koi rok paayega, ke wo apne rights ko lekar rahenge.
22:58Balochistan ke logon ne toh Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi ko bhi chitthiyan likhi thi aur unko rashi tak bheji thi.
23:06Jiska zikr unhone Laal Kele ki pracheer se bhi kiya tha.
23:10Aur chalte chalte, mein aapko wo sunwana bhi chahata ho ki, what did Prime Minister Narendra Modi say from the ramparts of the Red Fort when he got messages from people in Balochistan.
23:21Listen in.
23:23Pichle kuch dino se, Balochistan ke logon ne, Gilgit ke logon ne, Pak Occupied Kashmir ke logon ne, waha ke nagrikon ne, jis prakaar se mujhe bahot bahot danyawaad diya hai.
23:41Jis prakaar se mera abhaar vyakta kiya hai.
23:45Mere prati unhone jo sadbhaavna jatai hai, door door baithe huye log, jis dharti ko maine dekha nahi hai.
23:57Jin logon ko vishay mein meri kabhi mulaqaat nahi hui hai.
24:02Lekin aise door sudur baithe huye log, Hindustan ke ek Pradhan Mantri ko abhinandan karte hain, uska aadar karte hain, toh mere 125 crore deshwasiyon ka anand hai.
24:14Woh mere 125 crore deshwasiyon ka sambhaan hai.
24:18Aur isliye ye sambhaan ka bhaav, danyawaad ka bhaav karne wale, Balochistan ke logon ka, Gilgit ke logon ka, Pak ke kabje wale Kashmir ke logon ka, main aaj tahe dil se abhaar vyakta karna chahata hai.
24:35And the good news story, Mr. Deveshwar and Arzoo, India and New Zealand are through to the semi-finals and sadly Arzoo, for you Pakistan and of course Bangladesh, their out, their champions trophy campaign is over.
24:53But you know many thanks for joining me here on India Today.
24:55I quickly want to take our viewers to Assam now.
24:58Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Bihar in the afternoon, then he flew to Assam to participate in an event to mark 200 years of the tea industry in Assam.
25:06I want to leave you with these images, that's the Prime Minister's road show of sorts in a stadium.
25:148600 artists from tea gardens across Assam came together to be a part of this celebration.
25:20You hear the Prime Minister on the drums, there are 61 heads of missions who are there to witness this mega bhuvat in Guwahati.
25:29They visited the Kaziranga National Park, but I want to leave you with the dance and the music.
25:50.