‘Situation improving in Quetta’

LAHORE
Aban Marker Kabraji - niece of the legendary Pakistani diplomat Jamsheed Kaikobad Ardeshir Marker - Saturday said Afghan jihad, bad governance, unnecessary control of the Centre, insurgency and poor policies - both political and economic - had led to chaos and violence in Balochistan, particularly in Quetta.
“Due to Afghan Jihad, we witnessed an influx of people from Afghanistan to Quetta and other parts of the country. They bought land for their living and businesses while weapons too came from Afghan jihad.”
Aban, an environmentalist, said at a programme moderated by Shahid Zahid, “Our porous border with the volatile country has also increased our miseries.” Speaking on second day of Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), she said the incumbent provincial government led by Dr Abdul Malik Baloch was far better than the previous one and overall situation of the province was improving slowly but surely vis-à-vis security and prosperity.
“There is a hope at the end of the tunnel as things have started moving towards the right direction. These days, we have less disappearance of people as well as violence and clashes in the largest province of the country than the past few years.” “Let me assure you that Quetta is among the most peaceful cities of the country nowadays where you can now roam around freely,” she maintained. Aban also read out excerpts from internationally-acclaimed autobiographies of Marker, ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ and ‘Petals from Rose’, which are his recollection, mostly from memory, of his varied diplomatic career in some of the world’s most important capitals, and of the travels he undertook during his long career.
The books of Marker not only provide a link and continuous thread to the narrative but also contain his impressions of the Pakistani leaders under whom he had served. He has recorded all his impressions with candour and recalls his friendships not only with eminent writers, artists and musicians of all nationalities but also with the common citizens of the countries in which he served.
From these autobiographies, Aban recalled that Pakistan of the 1960s when the new pages of development were being turned as the whole world was gazing upon the young rising nation of the Asia. “Quetta and Karachi were incredible cities of Pakistan in the 1960s which have been engulfed by chaos and violence for the past few decades.” She also recalled the role Marker had played for brining Pakistani soldiers back from India after the 1971 war.
After the session, Aban talked to The News and expressed her belief that nothing would happen to Balochistan or Quetta as Pakistan could not afford anything like ‘fall of Dhaka’ again. “Our political and military leadership,” she said, “knows the importance of Balochistan and they are working on those areas where improvement is needed to address trouble points of the province. Quetta will survive and will remain as integral part of the country provided sensible approach is adopted in this regard.”“We started experiencing a decline on all fronts soon after the debacle of Bangladesh in the 1970s but other countries improved their economies following our economic model,” Aban said, adding that from 1970s onward, “we could not recover from the effects of ‘fall of Dhaka’ and the Afghan jihad.”
Aban said the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti was a major blow to the socio-political atmosphere of Balochistan, adding that the role of international players destabilising the peaceful environment of the province could not be ruled out either.
To a question, she said the proposed Pak-China Economic Corridor would have great impact on the Federation, if a well-planned strategy was followed.
She said Balochistan - a province full of natural resources - could play a vital role in Pakistan’s economy not only because of Gwadar port but all the energy routes leading to Central Asia (oil and gas pipelines) would have to pass from the very province as well.
It is pertinent to mention that Marker was not a career diplomat as his friend Aziz Ahmed, the then foreign secretary, convinced him to select the job. He went to Ghana as Pakistani ambassador in 1964 on his first assignment from where he never looked back.
Of all his 19 foreign postings, nine were direct and 10 were concurrent. His last assignment was Pakistan’s permanent representative at the UN Security Council in 1994.
Marker is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having been “ambassador to more countries than any other person in the world.” He has served as Pakistan envoy to over a dozen countries, including United States and Russia, etc. Being Ambassador to USA in 1986, he masterfully negotiated the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In September 2004, the then Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz named Marker as ambassador-at-large for his years of service. He was awarded with Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam and Hilal-e-Imtiaz for his long standing and dignified standing as a diplomat.