A chance to win Baloch hearts
As tremors were felt across Pakistan, hundreds of houses in the Maskhail region of Balochistan, 600 kilometres southwest of Quetta, were tumbling down like cards. The official count of the number of dead: 34 and counting. The official toll of the damages: yet to be made. When an earthquake of around 7.8 on the Richter scale with its centre of origin in Iran shook up some of our desks and cutlery, the worst was feared. It became a reality in the already deprived province of Balochistan, where the disenfranchisement of the people and the lack of an effective state apparatus, compound the scale of every natural tragedy. Unlike the 2005 earthquake in Khyber Pakthunkhwa, there is no easy way to access the region, with a drive through the insurgency-hit area likely to take at least two days.
Air drops are the best bet to getting aid and personnel into the region and flying out the injured. The fact that four military helicopters were dispatched on Wednesday morning to evacuate the at least 20 critically injured from Mashkail to Combined Military Hospital, Quetta is a good sign. The abandoned people of the Balochistan province need to be shown that the Pakistani state cares about them. With hundreds of houses completely destroyed by the powerful tremors generated by the quake and several people still buried under the rubble, the continuing aftershocks, coming in at 6.0 on the Richter scale, left the people without any shelter on the street and full of fear on Wednesday. The immediate needs are to be food items, station doctors in the area and provide temporary shelters. There has been no indication of when the National Disaster Management Authority shall dispatch such. Moreover, there is the larger question of when will the affectees be resettled.
The important thing is to realize that resettlement must go ahead without waiting for the US aid. While the US Secretary of State John Kerry has promised that “they stand ready to offer assistance in this difficult time,” it must be remembered that disaster relief contributed to a thaw in relations between the US and Iran, which accepted US personnel following the huge Bam earthquake in 2003. Given the current state of disaffection with the Pakistani state in Balochistan, perhaps this tragedy offers an opportune moment to extend a warm hand towards our Baloch brethren. But again it must be reiterated that it should be less about show, and more about the actual substance of the aid extended. With caretaker Prime Minister Khoso having offered an olive branch to Baloch nationalists in a recent visit to Quetta, it is time that he delivered some substance. The question is: shall the caretaker government realize the need to do more than issue condolences on the suffering of the people of Balochistan?
