Jamali - wearing a crown full of thorns

The Baluch are a nation which lives in a vast land stretching over Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is also a Baluch minority living in the Gulf region. The Gulf Baluch are divided into two groups. The first group was brought from British-controlled India to provide the colonial administration with security services and remained in the region after the independence of the Gulf states.

The second migrated a long time ago, settled, and integrated in the Gulf community, embracing its language, customs and traditions. Some of the latter's grandchildren reached senior positions, particularly in Oman where a Baluchi once held a ministerial post.

The second group claim that they descend from Arab origins. In other words, they consider themselves as descendants of those Arabs who took part in the Muslim conquest of Sind in the eighth century A.D. and settled in Baluchistan rather than returning to Arabia.

There is a great deal of controversy over the origin of the Baluch with some classifying them as Aryans and others regarding them as Semites. There is also an argument over the area they originated from.

In this context, a group of historians maintains that they came from Aleppo region of Syria. A second group believes that they came from the old stock of Sumerians of Mesopotamia. A third group believes that, like the Pathans, they may descend from Babylon, since "Baluch" is phonetically similar to the names of the God Baal or the Babylonian King Belos.

A fourth group holds that since the Baluchi language belongs to the same group of Indo-European as Persian and Kurdish, the Baluch originated from the area of the Caspian Sea, making their way gradually across Iran to their present homeland in around the year 1000 A.D.

Puzzling issue

However, what is certain is that the name "Baluchistan" only came into existence with the arrival of tribes called Baluch to settle in Iran and Pakistan. The name "Baluch" is also a puzzling issue with some scholars saying that it means very powerful and magnificent and others holding that it means nomad or wanderer.

What we are concerned with here is Pakistan's Baluchistan whose 400 tribes and sub-tribes continued to enjoy semi-autonomy and its affairs were administered by local tribal chiefs during the British occupation of the Indian subcontinent. Such an arrangement gave the British a nominal influence and secured the borders of the British Empire in South Asia against Russian ambitions.

When Pakistan was created as an independent state in 1947 it annexed Baluchistan and the latter was incorporated into the North West Frontier Province in 1955 before it returned to full provincial status in 1970. In 1976 the Pakistani government revoked the authority of local Baluchi chiefs to administer their own peoples, resulting in the eruption of a popular revolt that only ended in the 1980s.

Exceptional event

Although Baluchistan is area-wise the largest among Pakistan's four provinces (347,000 sq. km) and occupies a strategic location overlooking the Arabian Sea, opposite the Gulf's southern shores, with a coast stretching for 560 kilometres, yet it has remained marginalised in terms of development.

Its population of 6.5 million people, according to the 1998 estimates (or 3.8 per cent of Pakistan's total population), have suffered from obvious discrimination in terms of assuming senior positions, so none of them have been able to rise to the presidency or assume top government or army positions.

Therefore, the fact that Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has recently become Pakistan's prime minister after the partial return of power to civilians, is viewed as an exceptional event considering that he comes from the generally deprived Baluchi ethnic group. This may be considered as a partial remedy for Pakistan's Baluch.

The manner whereby Jamali was brought to power as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan since the creation of the state does not give reason to believe that there is a Pakistani recognition of failure in dealing with the Baluch as much as inspiring the necessities dictated by the political game.

In addition, Jamali's assumption of power in Pakistan's current constitutional and political complexity will not allow him a great deal of independence, freedom of action, or political manoeuvring. Jamali takes over his position while he is under the threat of the controversial constitutional amendments decreed by General Pervez Musharraf but opposed by most political parties.

The amendments empower Musharraf to dismiss elected prime ministers, dissolve federal parliament, appoint the armed forces' chiefs and provincial governors (who, in turn, have the right to sack provincial premiers and dissolve provincial assemblies), and set up a National Security Council that gives Pakistan's generals a permanent role in the country's governance.

On the other hand, Jamali will have to confront a parliament in which his party does not enjoy a clear majority. Moreover, the recently elected parliament is dominated by a number of representatives who are generally hostile to him, due to his party's loyalty to Musharraf's regime, its split from Pakistan Muslim League (PML), or its success in depriving the Taliban's godfather and leader of the radical parties bloc, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, of the premiership.

Therefore, it is true what an observer has said that Jamali, born in January 1944 in the village of Rowjhan, near Quetta, capital city of Baluchistan, has been given a crown full of thorns that will cause major headaches. He may end up either assassinated or dismissed by the army as experienced by his 18 predecessors starting from Liaquat Ali Khan and ending with Nawaz Sharif.

Another observer added that Jamali's fall would be swift, recalling that he left all the official posts that he took over within a few months. He left the government of Mohammed Khan Junejo as minister of water and power after one year and served as minister of information and food in the Baluchistan government for a period of four months only in 1977. He also served as Baluchistan's chief minister for a period of three months only in 1988 and for a little longer in 1990 and 1996.

Light-weight politician

Probably what makes the Baluch not so happy with the rise of one of their fellows to the top position in the federal government is the fact that Jamali, unlike his huge body weight, is a light-weight politician in spite of descending from a wealthy feudal family.

Additionally, he is a man who has spent most of his life away from Baluchistan and its key issues, either to attend Lawrence College in Murree, Atchison College in Lahore, Government College in Lahore, and Punjab University (from which he got his master's degree in history in 1965) or to play, support, and promote hockey, a popular game in which he was a skilled field player.

Indeed, he led Pakistan's national team and won Olympic medals for his country. Moreover, Jamali, in the eyes of the Baluch, is a man who has never believed in a specific partisan or political ideology. His ambition to reach the top government positions has always prompted him to change his loyalty to the different Pakistan