Pakistan- Is provincial autonomy better for our federation or not?

The last few days of mine has passed through extensive traveling and commitments in GCC where I met a lot of Pakistanis of different demographics and back grounds . Let it be a cab driver , an engineer , a businessman or a laborer . Each has a single question on their minds. What will happen to Pakistan? Is there a solution?

My last few days have passed through a lot of contemplation in this regard . Where lays the core of the problem. Many thoughts came across my mind both sane and insane . But this is what happens in a thought process ; you view the problem from different angles . Sometimes it could be to your liking or otherwise .

I personally believe that if we identify the problem and accept than only we could solve the same. I am sure that I must have mentioned the following earlier as well . If I have ; than my words prove right as per the order of the day. Pakistan was created for the muslims of the country and the minorities who wish to stay here . I am sure our founders did not define the word Muslim by any specific cast , creed , ethinicity , sect or any type of differential what so ever. They won their independence on the basis of the word Muslim.

A day or two ago there was talk of giving certain autonomy to the province of Baluchistan. This as per many politicians is the way forward . What would this bring to Baluchistan ? Sense of lesser reliance on the center , better ownership of their issues and no excuse for not developing their province . Honestly , as I have traveled through Baluchistan many times . I felt that at every juncture they did not need the government to do something for solving their issues ; these could have been solved on the self help basis especially when we talk about the royalties their Sardars have been getting for some time. Though I agree that the government should play a larger role in solving their issues . Maybe the payout of royalties could have been higher . But still I do have a feeling that poor Baluchs would struggle to make their ends meet as have been the case in the past and very much well into the future ; as having more reliance on these Sardars who are just not masters of their fate but unfortunately are the only political referance of the province . Anyways , Baluchistan would soon be out of gas . And unless they have undeclared reserves which I feel is very much the case and the yet to developed mines of Gold, Zinc , Iron and Gawadar etc. It could be a late awakening . Anyways , better late than never.

This brings us to the question that if we give autonomy to Baluchs so that to live as per their traditions and requirements with more power and money . Than what is wrong in doing so across the country. If the Pashtun brothers in NWFP want to live in a certain manner like by Nizam-e-Shariah ; then why don't we do an honest referendum and if the majority votes for the same then implement the same alongwith giving autonomy to these regions for the reasons as explained earlier . This way their reliance on the rest of the country would go down and also they would learn to live by the resources they have and I am sure this province has a lot to offer . Like minerals , surely gas and oil and more importantly the water . With the sense of ownership we could calm a lot of nerves down. I can assure that almost 80% of the Pashtuns I talk to here in GCC supports the same.

So we give autonomy to Baluchs and Pashtuns . Who is left then ? Sind and Punjab obviously. I was listening to the speech of Mr. Zardari earlier in the day and I could smell that he is under pressure from the people of the province of Sind to get autonomy as well like tha talks are going on for the other two provinces . The nationalistic rehotric in his speech clearly indicates the same as this is the vote bank which gets PPP over 60% of their seats in the parliament . With Sind having gas , oil and the one of the largest coal reserves in the world under their belt apart from ports and the city of Karachi . Their demand also seems appealing . During my stay in the interior of Sind ; the sense of deprivation is at alarming levels which is not good for the federation and we saw the reprecussions at the time of Shaheed Benazir's death . The other day I watched this melodramatic speech full of emotions and expressions (hillarious) by the Chairman of PPP . But on a serious note ; he also spelt frustration though they are very much in the government.

Let us do the maths now 3 out of 4 provinces want autonomy at this point in time. Let us assume, they even get it. What do we gain or loose out of it ? We gain fulfillment of the original vision of the republic as per 1940 resolution, we gain trust of the people , we get ownership from them and less blame for their problems on the state , decentralization of power corridors with better infrastructure , scope of foreign investments with a promise of security from the locals, jobs and mainly development . So what we loose ? We loose in my opinion NOTHING.

Pakistan today needs patriotism to survive. It is unfortunate that we all are thinking inward but maybe that is the solution as things have changed much since 1947 . At that time people compromised in my opinion out of love for the state of newly independent Pakistan . But in the current world of capitalistic society where every one wants their share I am sure there are other interests supreme . Let us not give autonomy only to the above 3 . If more want it . Give it to them. In this way , we shall know . Exactly as to who really contributes to the nation .

I hope that certain checks are put in place to monitor the same and apprise the people on the performance of their local leaders . And if the solution is viable than no harm is done.

Today , unfortunately every Pakistani is embroiled in petty issues without looking at the bigger role they could play in the world . We are worried about food, sugar , flour, electricity, education, health care , security and the list goes on . I think that we offload as many problems as possible in a transparent manner and trust that the federation would become stronger rather than on the contrary.

I would not like to mention what we have already lost by not doing the above much earlier . As we could not change anything . But let us look into the future not as Sindhis, Punjabis, Baluchs, Pashtuns or Mohajirs , not as Sunnis or Shia's , not as rich or poor and even not as educated or otherwise . Let us look to the future as Pakistanis. With every moment passing by ; we loose the race of survival . Let us take decisions in the interest of the federation and only for it.

Pakistan Zindabad!