Group C

Resolution on the Current State of the Nationality Question

1. The term "nationality" implies a group within a state, which may seek the right of self-determination. Though that particular nationality can uphold the right to secession and the formation of an independent state, it does not imply that it necessarily has to seek only that solution in gaining political recognition and self-determination. Autonomy with guarantees for provincial and national rights may satisfy a particular nationality’s aspiration.
2. In South Asia, the question of nationalities has asserted itself in the post-colonial multinational states. Dominant nationalities in these states have not accorded fair and just treatment to their minorities or their deprived and marginalized nationalities – a situation that has given rise to movements for national rights. To resolve these nationality issues, and achieve inter-state and intra-state peace, development and progress in South Asia, it is necessary to take concrete measures to satisfy the national aspirations of all nationalities in a democratic manner.
3. Pakistan, being a multinational state in which this reality has not been recognized, has seen enormous conflict in its relatively short history. In the case of East Pakistan this resulted in its separation, whereas Balochistan, Sindh and NWFP in the course of this period have experienced at different times and in varying degrees, similar oppression.
4. In the context of Balochistan, the people having been through enormous, costly struggles for national rights, including armed resistance against central government’s oppression in the last 54 years, desire peace and just political recognition. Such recognition can come only through genuine autonomy within a restructured, federal, democratic state of Pakistan. Any arrangement for autonomy must offer guarantees for the following national rights of the people of Balochistan
• Freedom to elect all their representatives at provincial and national level.
• Access to and control of their own resources with priority being given to the development of these resources for the benefit of the people of Balochistan.
• Constitutional safeguards at the federal level against encroachments on the national and provincial rights and the autonomy of Balochistan.
• Guarantees for the rights of the minorities within Balochistan rights within the framework of provincial autonomy; also guarantees for rights of women..
• Adjustments and re-demarcation of provincial boundaries on the basis of consensus and on the basis of the criterion of geographical, historical, and cultural contiguity – the consensus must take note also of the wishes of the people inhabiting in the area to be affected by re-demarcation.