Balochistan – Changing Perspectives

From a person with no homeland like Tarek Fatah to every second champion of human rights is worried about the matters in Balochistan.  But let me ask them, have they ever bothered to visit Balochistan themselves and see and hear with their own eyes and ears what’s really happening here? Being a native of Balochistan and having keen interest in its happenings I have came across many drastic changes in our region. From a merely Sardar hegemonic region with scarcity of literacy to a progressing with snail’s pace after some anti-state sardars fleeing the province, I have seen some very positive changes here over the last few years. The word ‘positive’ may sound alien in context of Balochistan as all you see on media about this province is negativity. The self-proclaimed Human Right activists like Tarek Fatah have never condemned the Israel's bombardment of Gaza for the last 6 decades that has killed millions including kids and women. They have no grit to question the Indian Army illegal occupation of Kashmir but when it comes to Balochistan, they appear out of nowhere with their maligned facts and twisted version of history as the 'saviors' of Baloch people.

There was a time when there was hardly any school in cities of Balochistan other than Quetta, but now we see them in almost every corner of the city. I myself had to travel miles to reach my school and very few girls from my neighborhood accompanied me in my early days. But now being a teacher by profession I am very glad to see that literacy rate is gradually increasing especially among girls. It may be far less as compared to other provinces but even this is acceptable in a province that has been hit by militancy for decades. The other positive thing I noticed is the increase in the sense of security as the time proceeds. The security forces are getting more and more popular as people feel less threatened by the militants in their presence. These untold facts may be really hard for some to digest as I have hardly heard any positive news about Balochistan on media till date. Most of the visitors from other provinces have been stunned to realize that most of what they heard before coming to Balochistan was merely a myth. They found  life as normal as it is in rest of the provinces. One of my friend from KPK province empathizes with me when I tell her about misconceptions about insecurity in Balochistan.

I am not denying the fact that militancy and terrorism in Balochistan had its days but the overall hype about it is more than it deserves. It was under these circumstances that I decided to voice my concerns to the world through an online platform and joined twitter about two years ago. The response I received was immense. But the most staggering revelation for me after meeting the online audience was that the most interested people in Balochistan matters were Indians. They were more interested than Pakistanis themselves and it was quite alarming for me. To be honest, I would never have studied them if I hadn’t come across them on twittersphere. And then who can ignore the separatists bully brigade? They helped me learn a lot about the mindset of my enemies and how they can be countered. The most common thing between the Indian audience and the separatist brigade is their rhetoric that India is the most peaceful country and Pakistan is the worst.

On the other hand, the role of Pakistani media has been quite disappointing but had it not been that way, my followers on twitter would never have known someone named Aisha Baloch. What’s more appalling than the fact that most of the media channels never dared to name the real culprits responsible for annihilating Quaid-e-Azam residency in Ziarat. The same has been the case with multiple train attacks and other public places. Just a couple of days back I came across pictures of a cricket tournament held in Quetta in which stadium was full of spectators. I didn’t come across any news about this positive activity in Balochistan on any news channel or newspaper.  Anyways, there has been a lot of awareness since the day I joined twitter and I have seen a lot of people who actually sympathize with the people of Balochistan in their real issues like terrorism, not the planted issues mainly given false hype by the media.

I am thankful to all my friends and followers for giving me the strength and motivation to strive for depicting a better image of Balochistan to Pakistan and to the world. I will never disappoint you in this regard.

Aisha Baloch

Author is a twitter activist.She tweets here(https://twitter.com/AyishaBaloch)