The concepts of human needs, conflict, and peace are interrelated and affect all aspects of human life. Human needs theories propose that all humans have certain basic universal needs and that when these are not met conflict is likely to occur. Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs beginning with the need for food, water, and shelter followed by the need for safety and security, then belonging or love, self-esteem, and, finally, personal fulfillment and self-actualization.
Conflict is an integral part of human life, in this case, Human Needs Theory provides a mechanism to understand the root causes of any conflict in any region of the world irrespective of their political cultures, and once you can identify the Conflict only then one can move towards conflict resolution. The Baluchistan crisis has remained a pivotal issue though out Pakistani history. Geographically located in southwest of the country, the province is heavily enriched with large qualities of coal, gold, copper, silver and above all uranium, has its boarders with Iran and Afghanistan along with a long coastal line on the Arabian Sea. Demographically, a major part of population consists of ethnic Baloch while other ethnic group which has concentration along borders with Afghanistan is Pashtun.
Taking into account the current situation of Baluchistan where the tribal chiefs have been outlandishly blaming the governmental institutions for unrest in Baluchistan, one needs to understand the Baloch grievances and alienations of Baloch people that have compelled them towards armed insurgency in the province. First and the foremost grievance lies in the fact that the province is rich of minerals and resources yet the people of the province are living a very meager life with little to no access to abundant resources being plucked out from Baluchistan for the rest of the country. Second is the issue of resource management and power sharing, where Sardars want a larger slice of revenue generated by the natural resources of the province and least of it going to the pockets of general public. Thirdly, another bone of contention between the federal government and the Baloch is the commercial and strategic importance of Gwadar Port. The Baloch wants to seek a vast share of opportunities for development and prosperity by this project yet they fear that Federal is overlooking Baloch needs and this opportunity of prosperity is being snatched by others due to their lack of requisite education and skills.
As a result, Federal has missed a lot of opportunities to engage the Baloch society into mainstream political and economic activities to ensure a peaceful, political solution to the crisis. Treating what is going in the province of Balochistan as a security matter only is a reductionist approach which has in result produced human right crisis in form of forced disappearances, mass killings, and insurgencies. In its 2023 fact-finding report, Balochistan’s Struggle for Hope, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) highlighted that there is surge in enforced disappearances especially in areas of Gwadar and Turbat that has caused tensions as well as increased protests among the Baloch people but Islamabad has failed to address this issue properly rather it has further increased the anger and disenchantment among the Baloch.
It is high time that political elite realizes that stability in Baluchistan is vital to ensure stability within and outside Pakistan. This can only be achieved by addressing the basic human need demands of the Baloch people. For that matter peace-building and political reconciliation is the first and foremost priority that needs to be taken seriously by Islamabad. It would be worthwhile to engage moderate and educated sections of Baloch population into mainstream to create a balance between ethnically radical segments of the society. As well as government needs to reach out to Baloch insurgents with a comprehensive and credible political strategy to engage them in negotiations and enhance mechanism of confidence building measures with incentives such as ending military operations, pulling out the FC from certain areas, solving the issue of Baloch missing persons and compensating the families of affected by the crisis. Moreover, relevant state institutions and the judiciary should investigate extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Once measures to ensure peace are taken it is equally vital to alleviate poverty and mitigate the adverse impact of decade long neglect that the province has faced. This means that the province should have its due share in development projects such as CPEC, ownership of the Saindak copper-gold project, Reko Diq agreement, and revenues from the Gwadar port.
The conflict in Baluchistan is not a mere security issue rather it has underlying reasons related to human needs. It remains vital for Pakistan’s economic development because a politically stable Balochistan can meaningfully reduce security threats emerging from the province as well as outside. It is a common understanding that when certain human needs are not being satisfied it always result in surge in violence. That attempt to violence is in fact is an attempt to meet such needs by use of force when all other options fail. The conflict in Baluchistan can be resolved by taking into account the basic human needs. However, the only thing still missing from this calculation is a serious political will from Islamabad to towards trust-building with the Baloch community.
