South Asia: Pakistan and the Himalayan States - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 186

Figure 7-7
This aerial photo shows irrigated lands along the
edge of the Thar Desert in India. Y ou can see one
of the many irrigation canals that are linked to the
Indus. Photograph courtesy of B. A. Weightman.

may be overwhelmed or closed and the ballot boxes
stuffed with votes for the “boss.”
T Typically, , a parliamentary candidate visits villages
and makes promises, giving money to village elders
who distribute it among their clans who will then vote
for the candidate. According to conventional wisdom
in Pakistan, the only loyalty more powerful than that
to one' is clan is that given to one' is zamindar . In recent
years, as education and communication improve, some
middle-class candidates, including women, have been
elected. This certainly goes against the norm for many
people. The rural peasantry is virtually excluded from
higher levels of government. According to the writer
Ahmed Rashid, “If the feudals put up their dog as a
candidate, that dog would get elected with 99 percent
of the vote.” This has even greater meaning because
generally , Muslims do not like dogs, regarding them as
unclean.

pedestals, layered and etched like old teeth. Northward
to Afghanistan lie volcanoes, expanses of black pebbles
called dasht , shifting red dunes, and salt-encrusted
playas (dry lakes) called hamun . A local proverb refers
to Baluchistan as “the dump where Allah shot the rub-
bish of creation.''
Baluchistan' is only notable urban center is Quetta, a
hill station strategically situated between two passes into
Afghanistan. In the hills above Quetta at 5,490 feet
(1,650 m)juniper tr ees are cultivated. Oil of juniper
berries gives gin (e.g., Bombay Gin) its distinct flavor.
Coal reserves offer some economic potential, but these
have since proved to be of poor quality . However, the
province has rich oil and gas reserves and provides 75
percent of the marble for Pakistan' s marble industries.
This region has been long-known for its karez , under-
ground irrigation systems using hand-dug, gravity-flow
tunnels to divert water from aquifers to surface streams
and ponds. Karez systems still exist in arid lands from
Iran to western China and Oman, even further west.
Baluchistan has been a center of Islamist and sectar-
ian violence since 2007. Nationalists claim that the region
was forced to join Pakistan in 1947. They and others want
a greater share of the profits reaped from mining and
other industries. There have also been violent outbreaks
between Sunnis and Shites. General Musharraff, prime
minister at the time, sent in troops to put down the insur-
gency . The army has been accused of human rights viola-
tions including torture and murder. Thousands of people
have lost their lives or have “disappeared.” Now , there are

Baluchistan
Although twice the size of Punjab, rugged and arid
Baluchistan possesses the smallest population and is
the poorest province. Sedentary farming, pastoral no-
madism, and related crafts and trade continue to be
ways of life among the various tribes of the craggy out-
crops, plateaus, and mesas of the Suleiman and other
ranges sweeping southward and westward to the Iran-
ian border. The southern Makran coast has been de-
scribed as “bizarre,'' comprising gigantic pillars and