Pro-Balochistan bill lands in US congress (Pakistan)
WASHINGTON: A historic bill has been tabled in the US House of Representatives calling upon Pakistan to recognize the right of self-determination for Balochistan.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) introduced a House Concurrent Resolution that the Balochi nation has a historic right to self-determination.
Balochistan is currently divided between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan with no sovereign rights of its own. In Pakistan especially, the Balochi people are subjected to violence and extrajudicial killing.
The bill states that the Balochi people have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country; and they should be afforded the opportunity to choose their own status.
The Balochis, like other nations of people, have an innate right to self-determination, says Rohrabacher. The political and ethnic discrimination they suffer is tragic and made more so because America is financing and selling arms to their oppressors in Islamabad.
Historically Balochistan was an independently governed entity known as the Baluch Khanate of Kalat, which came to an end after invasions from both British and Persian armies. An attempt to regain independence in 1947 was crushed by an invasion by Pakistan.
Today the Balochistan province of Pakistan is rich in natural resources but has been subjugated and exploited by Punjabi and Pashtun elites in Islamabad, leaving Balochistan the country's poorest province.
Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA) have also signed on as original co-sponsors of the bill.
Rep. Rohrabacher is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.