Merwah Qureshi |
CPEC is a flagship project of China’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI). It is a multi-billion project with the great potential of socio-economic and geo-strategic development for the parties involved. It is truly called the harbinger of peace and prosperity. If realized, this mega-project, along with the development of Pakistan and China, will welcome regional development as well.
CPEC, being the last pearl of China’s String of Pearls project serves as a link between One Belt One Road (OBOR) and ‘String of Pearls’. Among all other projects proposed by China to other states, CPEC owing to its unbeatable potential not only irks Pakistan’s arch-rivals but the regional and international powers as well.
While resorting to anti-Pakistan propaganda setting, the agencies of Pakistan’s adversaries used cyberspace as a ground and media as a tool to raise the communal concerns and to fuel territorial insecurities among Balochs, thus, waging hybrid warfare against Pakistan.
From challenging the ports of UAE and India to giving China access to India Ocean Origin (IOR), and from welcoming development in Pakistan to strengthening its security, CPEC’s progressive impacts do not serve the interests of the rival states rather threaten them. Therefore, all the states maintaining a hostile posture towards Pakistan, have sworn in to disrupt this multifaceted project with the help of their agencies.
In order to sabotage CPEC, Pakistan’s adversary India and other rival powers have provided their rogue and hostile agencies a framework of actions to be carried out against CPEC and Pakistan. These frameworks of actions basically focus on the exploitation of already present fault-lines in Pakistan to hinder her walk towards prosperity; unfortunately, Baluchistan and the sense of marginalization in the Baloch community appeared to be the best targets. So, the hostile agencies adamant at sabotaging CPEC adopted two major plans of action for the realization of their mala fide intentions and aspirations.
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Initially, they relied on proxy war to disrupt the security environment of Baluchistan and to create a situation of trust deficit between the province and the state, thus, inducing the sense of insecurity among the Baloch community. Financial and arms support of sub-nationalist and militant Baloch factions i.e. BLA (Baloch Liberation Army), BRP (Baloch Republican Party), Jundallah, etc from Afghanistan and India, the Khulbhushan Yadhav episode, and rival states showing willingness to give asylum to the rebels are sufficient enough to prove the involvement of rival agencies and their efforts for threatening the security.
Afterward this anti-Pakistan lobby pursued the well-known phenomenon of Fourth Generation Warfare to further inculcate the anti-Pakistan and anti-CPEC sentiments in the minds of Balochs. While resorting to anti-Pakistan propaganda setting, these agencies used cyberspace as a ground and media as a tool to raise the communal concerns and to fuel territorial insecurities among Balochs, thus, waging hybrid warfare against Pakistan.
Anti-Pakistan forces are trying hard to subvert the Baloch, which is, however, an impossible thing, for the Baloch know about their friends and foes and they are well aware of the plan devised by enemy countries to not let Pakistan in general and Baluchistan in specific terms develop.
The minds of Baloch youth have been instilled with misinformation that CPEC would neither benefit Baluchistan nor Baloch’; instead, it will add insult to their miseries. They have been brainwashed against Pakistan by the foreign-funded organizations and have been provoked to retaliate against their very own land.
These anti-Pakistan forces are trying hard to subvert the Baloch, which is, however, an impossible thing, for the Baloch know about their friends and foes and they are well aware of the plan devised by enemy countries to not let Pakistan in general and Baluchistan in specific terms develop.
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Although Baluchistan lags behind rest of the provinces in socio-economic development, the people of Baluchistan have seen that the center is putting its best to bring prosperity to the largest province of Pakistan.
Moreover, the entire Baloch community has been witnessing how the men in khakis are sacrificing their lives to protect the Balochs, they have witnessed the federal government efforts aimed at empowering the people of Baluchistan and they have been assured many a time that they’ll get their due share in the CPEC project.
Moreover, it is time that Baloch community shall stop itself from being a puppet in the hands of rogue agencies with the aim of making Pakistan another Syria.
These commendable efforts by the federal government have successfully regained the trust of Baloch tribesmen by making them realize that CPEC would actually, serve as a mean to put an end to their pain of Baloch marginalization. Consequently, it is suggested that the Baloch community and Baloch associations be involved in the process of restoring peace in Baluchistan, opting the participatory approach.
So, it is now the responsibility of all the stakeholders to never let the hostile powers sabotage CPEC and to never expose any weak link to these adversaries. An awareness campaign, showing the actual realities regarding CPEC and exposing the mal-intentions of the rival powers, shall be launched by media.
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In addition to this, the Baloch tribesmen should be taken on board while making any decisive move regarding Baluchistan or the projects in Baluchistan. Moreover, it is time that Baloch community shall stop itself from being a puppet in the hands of rogue agencies- aimed at making Pakistan another Syria.
Miss Merwah Hamid Qureshi holds an M. Phil Degree in Biochemistry from QAU, Islamabad and is also a visiting lecturer for International Relations at National Officers Academy (NOA), Rawalpindi. She is a freelance content writer for online portals like Amazon. The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.