Is demand for identity a crime?

By Dj Mathal

 With the coming of the 18th constitution amendment in Pakistan, each individual, ethnic group and tribe in the country has started feeling threatened and demanding administrative autonomy. The strongest voice in this regard has come from the three districts of Hazara division in the north - Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur. The people of the Hazara division which consists of five districts have termed the renaming of NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as against their wishes and interest and rejected it with full force. In this regard, they took to the streets and during the violent protest nine people were killed and hundreds injured. Political parties in the area have united in a single platform to resist the new name and are demanding a new province called Hazara. Even the PML-N which supported the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa demand of the Awami National Party had no other option but to respect the sentiment of the people of Hazara.
On the other hand, in the southern Punjab, the demand for separate provinces of Bahawalpur and Seraikistan has already gained momentum and motions for amending the constitution in this regard have already been submitted to the parliament. The game does not end here. In the Balochistan province, the Baloch people they have gone one step further to demand total separation from the country and have picked up arms against the armed forces. Even in Sindh, the Sindhu Desh movement has been in full force since the time of its late leader G.M. Syed. Even people in the Pakistani administrative control of Kashmir, a region awaiting final resolution under the UN, never tire of chanting the slogan of freedom for the region. Besides, a movement is also underway in Gilgit-Baltistan seeking rights denied to the area people for the last over 62 years. The question arises why the federating units in Pakistan are so perturbed and vehemently trying to get out of the system?
A prominent leader of Indian extremist party the Bahartia Janata Party and former foreign minister of India Jaswant Singh has in his recent book on Mr Jinnah has claimed that Pakistan was not the result of the struggle of Mohammad Ali Jinnah or the Muslims of the subcontinent but was a byproduct of the mentality of Congress leaders Nehru and Patel. He said these two leaders could not afford to remain in jail and took cover under the demand of the Muslim League and Mr Jinnah  to enter into a compromise with the British in order to take control on at least two-third of the country. Though the disclosure was not only surprising for the people of Pakistan but also indigestible for its rulers, its is also a fact and also affirmed by former Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmak Khan in a press interview last year. India devoured all small nationalities and tribes as well as princely states under the garb of independence. These princely states included that of Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral.
It is very strange that the people of Balochistan, NWFP, Sindh and Punjab have not yet become Pakistani despite being the vital federating units. Earlier, the people of East Pakistan fought their battle and got an independent country when they saw that their rights were being denied to them and their identity was at danger. It is strange that all nationalities, tribes and ethnic groups have started struggle to get their own identities recognized instead of coming under the flag of Pakistan. The most obvious example of this is the ANP which at last succeeded in getting the name of Pakhtunkhwa for the province by blackmailing Pakistan's security agencies and political parties. Though the ANP got what it wished for years and declared that its identity has been recognized but at the same time it threatened the very survival of other nationalities and people speaking different languages at stake.
Under the current circumstances, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan are compelled to think why those seeking freedom for the people of the region are labeled as traitors though the region is not even part of Pakistan. We support carving out of new provinces but that should be done keeping the welfare of the people in mind not to further divide them on ethnic basis. Similarly, the name of a province should also be adopted in consensus of the people and keeping their cultural and ethnic sensitivities supreme. Saner elements in the country are still perturbed why Pakistan which came into being in the name of Islam has failed to maintain its identity even after 62 years. The answer is very simple. A nation formed on false identity and at gunpoint cannot sustain for long let alone progress. The rulers of Pakistan have continued suppressing different nationalities in order to plunder their resources and maintain their rule over the country. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan are also among the nationalities and have been pushed to the wall by successive Pakistani rulers for the last over 62 years. Other nationalities have been raising voice for their rights but in the case of Gilgit-Baltistan the rulers of Pakistan have taken full advantage of their simplicity and docility and first herded them into the Kashmir issue and then left them in the lurch denying all their basic rights. Now Pakistan has planned to construct scores of dams in the region to water its agricultural lands and this endangers the very survival of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. By doing this Pakistan wants to eliminate Gilgit-Baltistan's cultural, socio-economic and political existence, so that it can take control of its resources.
It is high time the international community especially the UN took notice of the situation and pressured Pakistan not to take such steps which are detrimental to the existence of the two million people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Steps should be taken to safeguard and promote the interests of the people of the region so that they can live in an independent atmosphere without being threatened by any quarter.