An Open Letter to the Prime Minister on Balochistan

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

I am taking the presumption of penning this letter in regard to the recent upsurge in violence in Balochistan. I realise that given the multiple crises your government is facing, not least the vexing question of its own legitimacy, your plate is full and, at best, you must rely on bullet points and one-page summaries. I will, therefore, try to keep this as brief as possible, though it might still end up being two pages too long for your time.

Let me reiterate the point that I am only referring to the violence in Balochistan, not Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because the two cases are different. The result in both cases may be dead bodies, but the motives, motivations and objectives of violent groups are different.

This distinction should also be our starting point.

Since the violence in Balochistan is primarily political, spring as it does from historical Baloch memory and deprivation of rights, Baloch separatist violence cannot be treated like the terrorism perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Mr Prime Minister, Hans Morgenthau was a German-American political scientist and a classical realist who famously opposed America's misadventure in Vietnam both on realist and moral grounds. During his teaching years at the University of Chicago, he once told his students that "appeasement is a legitimate strategy in dealing with autonomist movements; give them their own self-government within the established state, but the worst possible strategy when dealing with those who are bent on taking it over."

The parallel, according to Morgenthau, was with territorial aggressors: if their ambition is limited, then a border adjustment is possible (medieval European wars are a good example of that). But they may also have an insatiable appetite, in which case appeasement is a disaster (the appeasement of Hitler is a case in point).

The extreme Baloch sentiment — expressed by groups that have resorted to violence as opposed to the Baloch majority that remains peaceful — desires to secede. The self-styled Pakistani Taliban want to translate the ideological space they have created for themselves into physical and politico-administrative spaces. The TTP wants to conquer, not secede.

That, Mr Prime Minister, is the most important difference and must guide the formulation of any policy at the strategic level. The Baloch can be talked to for an adjustment, to use Morgenthau's argument. The TTP cannot be........

© The Friday Times

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