Articles for category: Opinion

Yaseen Ghani

Yes, I’m from Balochistan

Balochistan is not a country. When someone asks me here in Europe where I come from and I tell them Balochistan, it will most likely be the first time they hear about this piece of land. Then they ask me what language do we speak in Bal.. Balok… Balokistan… “Balochistan,” I would come to their ...

Internet photo

Pakistan: A discourse upon the countdown to dissolution

Senior US foreign and defence analysts have forecast the total collapse of Pakistan by 2025. It now appears that the developing ground realities across its main provinces are supportive of just such a prediction. The appeal to a common religious framework is backfiring as all and sundry now face a ruthless onslaught by Punjab’s armed ...

Is PTM an ‘engineered protest’?

The statement from the Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said on April 12 that “engineered protests” would not be allowed to reverse the gains of counterterrorism operations and cautioned the nation against forgetting sacrifices of “real heroes”. He, without naming the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), blamed it as something which was ...

Balochistan: Political awakening

Recently, Brahumdagh Bugti, the leader of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), through a tweet, subscribed to the Pakistani version of the events of March 27th 1948, which Baloch observe as a black day as Balochistan was illegally annexed to Pakistan. He said it was only Kalat and not Balochistan that was annexed and then in ...

Bibi Mahdim Baluch

A lesson from Baloch history

The leader of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) has issued statements in serious breach of the Baloch nationalist narrative and presented the world at large with an inaccurate understanding of Baloch history. Balochistan had been a loosely knit tribal confederacy for centuries with major political activity and discussion being centered in and around Kalat or ...

News Desk

An academic history of Balochistan’s ‘accession’ with Pakistan

Brahumdagh Bugti’s refusal to accept March 27 as the day of occupation of Balochistan by Pakistan has opened a pandora’s box with nationalist leaders across the board asking the Baloch Republican Party leader to take back his statement. In all this noise, however, historical facts are being ignored. Neither Brahumdagh nor his critics are offering ...

Mureed Baloch

The true story of slaughtering a mid-aged hen

“But why are you so scared of birds, cousin? They’re cute. And delicious. I slaughtered this one before you guys arrive,” she said in a shyly proud tone while splitting the boiled hen in portions to serve her polio-ridden brother. “That’s really brave of you,” I replied. For some odd reason in life, birds have ...

Sameer Mehrab

A photo by an unknown artist about power politics.

The role of law in Baloch-Pakistan conflict

Why ask the Baloch to follow Pakistan’s constitution, when the state itself disregards its laws in punishing the Baloch for not following Pakistan’s constitution? The constitution is a social contract between the state and its citizens to govern and to be governed under a set of agreed-upon laws. The Baloch people had no role in ...

On the question of Baloch-Pashtun unity

I do not want to be seen as someone throwing a monkey wrench into the works and undermining the move towards a prospective Baloch-Pashtun unity but there are certain things which all those advocating and proposing this unity should understand and keep in view. I for one would be the happiest if this much-wanted unity ...

Hassan Hamdam

The birth of Bangladesh: who is to blame?

Bangladesh comprised of the eastern regions of a divided Bengal. In the schema of dividing India and creating Pakistan on religious grounds, this part of Bengal was incorporated in to Pakistan and, for a while, it was known as East Pakistan. After a bloody civil war, with the help of Indian forces, East Pakistan became ...