The Baloch House

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\03\17\story_17-3-2010_pg11_5Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Families of missing Baloch persons on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration in front of the National Press Club against the government alleging that it had failed to fulfill its promise to recover the missing people.

The protesters were carrying photographs and posters of their missing relatives and chanting slogans against the government.

They called upon national and international human rights organisations to take notice of the increasing number of missing people.

Iqbal Baloch, relative of a missing person, said the demonstration was meant to tell people that the enforced disappearances had not stopped with the ouster of former president Pervez Musharraf.

Instead, he said, incidents of forced disappearances had once again reached an alarming level.

The protesters said the families of the missing persons would continue their protest till March 18 against the forced disappearances of Bal…

17 Mar 2010, 0207 hrs IST, Bharti Jain, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: As Pakistan raises the water-sharing bogey against India, its own inter-provincial battles over distribution of the natural resource — rendered short this year due to the failure of rains during the winter rabi season and drawing of more than its share by Punjab — are threatening to snowball into a full-blown civil war.

Punjab, which has been getting the lion’s share of Indus waters all this while, is pitted against Sindh and Balochistan for denying the latter “their rightful share” of Indus waters and for going ahead with Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Pinjad link canals projects at a time when Sindh, Balochistan and even southern Punjab are battling serious water shortages due to failed rains.

Sindh, which puts its annual losses at 1 million acre feet, is opposing the Chashma-Jhelum project and has sought closing of the Taunsa-Pinjad canal alleging that these are just enabling devices to irrigate south Punjab when required. On the…

Source: http://sardarwatch.wordpress.com/
Mir Khuda Bakhsh Bijarani, Marri Baloch, a judge of the High Court of Sind and Baluchistan in his book Searchlights on Baloches and Balochistan (1974) describes the status of the Sardars under the British:“The tribal Chiefs and headmen were allowed to maintain their positions on condition of loyalty to the British Government. Any doubt on that count used to result in immediate removal and replacement of the unwanted tribal Chief by a relative or another tribesman. Sometimes even new Chieftainships would be introduced and scrupulously maintained… In return for certain privileges and monetary payments through pensions, the tribal Heads proved useful in keeping peace among their respective tribes. No restrictions were put on such Chiefs in the matter of burdening the tribesmen on various excuses by imposing taxes on threat of sending them to British jails in case of non-compliance. Here we see the unfortunate people of Baluchistan deprived of edu…