Gwadar protests and the peculiar role of Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan

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Abstract

For nearly a month, the coastal town of Gwadar has been witnessing the emergence of a protest movement called the Gwadar Ko Huqooq Do Tehreek (Give Rights to Gwadar Movement), ‘considered one of the largest in Baluchistan’s history’. The movement is led by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). Baluchistan’s General Secretary and religious scholar Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman Baloch is rallying against various issues, from the presence of large illegal fishing trawlers and the ban on locals from engaging on deep-sea trawling to the lack of health facilities, adequate educational centres, and drinking water. In brief, protesters are demanding the basic rights denied to them by the central government and its subservient provincial administration since the country came into existence. The Baloch feeling of social and economic marginalisation as well as political side-lining gained additional momentum since the launch of the Beijing’s initiated China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), roughly six years ago (Wolf, 2019). For regional communities in Gwadar and beyond, it becomes increasingly obvious that instead of the promised employments and improved overall living conditions, Chinese development projects (foremost the CPEC) increase socio-economic aberrations (especially the exploitation of local resources without adequate returns for autochthonous populations) and generally deteriorate living conditions. For experts, such massive protests do not come by surprise; however, the composition, timing, and leadership structure of these movement do raise some questions. […]