[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 60 (Wednesday, April 25, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E649-E650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              BALUCHISTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 25, 2012

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, Baluchistan is one of four provinces 
in Pakistan. It is the largest of the four provinces in terms of area 
(44 percent of the country's land area), but the smallest in terms of 
population (5 percent of the country's total). Within Baluchistan is 
the Baluch people group. They have their own language, culture, and 
history.
  This distinct group of people, who once held autonomous status, was 
deprived of their freedom without consideration when the British Empire 
invaded the area. When the British took control over the area they 
divided the Baluchistan land into three separate parts, giving part of 
the land to Persia in 1896 while retaining the largest portion for 
India. The third and final division of the land by the British occurred 
in 1894 that gave part of Baluchistan to Afghanistan.
  Once the British relinquished control and India and Pakistan 
separated, the majority of Baluchistan was forcefully annexed to 
Pakistan in 1948. The Baluch people never had any say--they were never 
asked if they wanted to be part of Pakistan.
  Since then, the government of Pakistan has neglected them. Look at 
almost any indicator and the Baluch people are worse off than other 
Pakistanis. Life expectancy, school enrollment, and adult literacy are 
all particularly low amongst the Baluch people. This is ironic when you 
look at all the large reserves of gas, oil, gold, copper, silver, 
platinum, aluminum, and uranium it has. The Baluch people have the 
resources to take care of themselves, but the government of Pakistan 
takes the resources and either puts tight constraints on the profit 
that goes back to the Baluchs or gives the profit away to its friends. 
For example, the government has historically required Baluchistan to 
sell gas at a lower rate than the other provinces. Baluchistan receives 
a mere $0.29 per thousand cubic feet for its gas, while nearby Sindh 
gets $1.65 and Punjab receives $2.35. Pakistan gave the exploration 
rights to the Saindak copper mine to the Chinese, so the Chinese will 
get most of the profit and the Pakistan profit the rest.

  It is not just neglect of the Baluch people but also outright 
persecution. Since 2005, Pakistani human rights organizations have 
recorded numerous serious human rights violations by security forces, 
including extrajudicial executions, torture, enforced disappearances, 
forced displacement, and excessive use of force. According to the 
Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, violence in 2005 
around Dera Bugti district alone displaced around 6,000 people and 
killed scores.

[[Page E650]]

Over 2009 and 2010, Human Rights Watch detailed 45 cases of alleged 
forced disappearances.
  Pakistan decided to respond to complaints over how they rule with 
brutal force. Instead, they should give the Baluch people a voice in 
how they will be governed. They should not only listen to their 
complaints, but answer them with positive steps. Should the government 
of Pakistan continue to not only neglect but persecute the Baluch 
people, it is hard to argue with Baluchs who demand self-determination. 
In the end, a government is only legitimate as long as it has the 
support of its people. The government of Pakistan is dangerously close 
to that line.
  Apparently, the Baluch people have been reading Thomas Jefferson's 
comments when he said in the Declaration in the Independence, ``We hold 
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that 
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to 
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving 
their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any 
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right 
of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new 
Government.'' History recorded what happened to the British when they 
forgot these truths. And that's just the way it is.

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