My friendship with Maria Malik goes back ten years . In
these ten years I have seen the introvert Maria turn into a remarkable young
lady with a profile that keeps getting better. Maria is a keen researcher and
an astute political observer. At the tender age of 25, Maria is already serving as
a Political Science lecturer at Kinnaird College (one of the most prestigious Liberal
Arts colleges of Pakistan )and her first book called Balochistan Conundrum- The Real Perspective is already out in the market.
I am testament to the fact that she has worked really hard on this book,
being fortunate enough to be the one who was asked by Maria to read the
manuscript long before it was published. This blog will not discuss the multitudes of
talents that Maria Malik the Person possesses (although the temptation is
huge). Rather, this blog post
is a minor attempt to recognize Maria Malik the Author’s efforts in the field
of development and internal politics of Pakistan.
Balochistan Conundrum- The Real Perspective is about the
present political turmoil and violent uprisings in Balochistan.
It is fast paced, interesting and a must read. She also
proposes some really smart and empathetic solutions to start the peace building
process to alleviate the pathetic situation in Balochistan. I will conclude
this post on only one note:
This blog post is to pay homage to one of my legendary friends of whose accomplishments I am greatly proud of and am eagerly waiting for more!
Balochistan is the largest and least
developed province of Pakistan. It is gifted with multiple reserves of
natural resources such as copper, coal, natural gas and even gold. However,
when it comes to benefiting from these resources, Baloch people are the last ones to have a piece of the pie. They are the least
educated, least skilled and least employed in all of Pakistan. This ongoing discrimination have made Baloch people resentful towards
the federal government of Pakistan and there are many who want separation.
Balochistan is home to various political unrests stemming from the demands of separatist elements called BLF or Baloch Liberation Front. Due to the great number of natural resources, various foreign elements are also interested in the stakes involved. In
her book Maria outlines the importance of Balochistan for Pakistan, the reasons
for the grievances of people and urges that it is not too late to reconcile with the common man in the province.
Maria also describes the important positions that
various tribal leaders enjoy in the grand scheme of provincial and federal politics. Any form of reconciliation with the
Balochi people cannot occur without taking these tribes into confidence. In her extremely objective approach, Maria meticulously
articulates the reasons of Balochistan insurgency and examines the issue
with a post colonial, neutral, socioeconomic, and politically subtle lens. In her book, the positive correlation between armed insurgency and the military
operations that were carried out in the region in last 60 years, has been backed up careful statistics.
However, her main focus is the present wave of insurgency which engulfed Balochistan from 2004 onwards.
However, her main focus is the present wave of insurgency which engulfed Balochistan from 2004 onwards.
This blog post is to pay homage to one of my legendary friends of whose accomplishments I am greatly proud of and am eagerly waiting for more!
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