While the Chinese did oblige the Pakistani request for the expeditious supply of more planes to the PAF, they continue to fight shy of more involvement in Gwadar.
While the Chinese did oblige the Pakistani request for the expeditious supply of more planes to the PAF, they continue to fight shy of more involvement in Gwadar. They took the extraordinary step of contradicting motivated briefings by members of Gilani’s entourage who sought to convey an impression that the Chinese had reacted more positively this time.
In a despatch of May 24 from Beijing, the Reuters news agency reported as follows: “On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had no knowledge beforehand of the naval port proposal and it had not been discussed during Gilani’s visit. China and Pakistan are friendly neighbours. Regarding the specific China-Pakistan cooperative project that you raised, I have not heard of it,” Jiang told a regular news conference in Beijing.”
“¦reports have been coming in that Iran has started dragging its feet on the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran into Pakistani Punjab through Balochistan
Simultaneously with the Chinese reiteration of their continued lack of interest in the Pakistani proposals for the upgradation of Gwadar into a naval base with a possible Chinese presence there, reports have been coming in that Iran has started dragging its feet on the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran into Pakistani Punjab through Balochistan because of the continuing freedom struggle of the Balochs.
The scepticism of China and Iran regarding the ability of the Pakistani Armed Forces to put down the Baloch freedom struggle should act as a morale-booster to the Balochs and encourage them to further step up their freedom struggle. Unfortunately, the continuing lack of unity among different Baloch nationalist organisations and the consequent in-fighting are coming in the way of a successful culmination of the Baloch freedom struggle.
Lack of unity and in-fighting had led to the collapse of the Baloch freedom-struggles in the past. Instead of uniting to succeed, if the Baloch leaders let history repeat itself because of their inability to unite, history will not forgive them. Since the days of Zia-ul-Haq the geopolitical circumstances in the region had never been more favourable for the Balochs. If they miss this opportunity, they may not get another like this again. Unite to succeed-that is the slogan that should be reverberating across Balochistan.
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