QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: The Baloch National Movement (BNM) has said that no foreign investment, mining project, or extraction of natural resources in Balochistan can be considered acceptable without the “free, genuine and collective consent” of the Baloch people.
The statement came from a BNM spokesperson as the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum (PMIF26) opened in Islamabad. The government-organised event, endorsed by the Special Investment Facilitation Council, is being held on Nov. 12 and 13 at the Jinnah Convention Centre. It aims to introduce international investors to Pakistan’s mineral potential. minutemirrorarynews
The spokesperson said the forum is an attempt to turn the use of Balochistan’s natural resources into an international economic enterprise by bringing in foreign investors and multinational corporations. He said that, although it is presented as investment and development, its real effect would be to deprive the Baloch people of their own resources and prolong their poverty and economic subjugation. The BNM described this as “mineral colonialism,” a system in which outside powers profit from a region’s natural wealth while its indigenous population is exploited and marginalised.
The spokesperson said any agreement that ignores the will and political status of the Baloch people would be illegitimate. He warned that such deals could deepen the existing conflict and possibly escalate violence in Balochistan. He urged international mining companies, investors and financial institutions to stay out of Balochistan, which he described as an occupied territory and a conflict zone. In his view, the international community has a moral and political responsibility to support Baloch self-determination rather than serve the economic interests of what he called an occupying state.
The BNM also alleged that enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, unlawful arrests of political activists and leaders, fabricated criminal cases and attempts to silence political voices are part of a wider system meant to suppress Baloch political and economic rights and keep control of the Balochistan’s resources.
The spokesperson said the Baloch have struggled for decades for their national identity, their homeland and control over their resources and that the sacrifices of Baloch men, women and young people show the human cost of that struggle. He dismissed claims of development and prosperity in Balochistan that ignore these realities as an illusion. He added that international companies exploiting the province’s resources without Baloch consent risk becoming complicit in a contested and exploitative enterprise.
The BNM called on the United Nations, international financial institutions, and the wider international community to make Baloch consent a basic condition for any project involving the province’s resources. It also asked them to take notice of alleged human rights violations and to respect the political and national rights of the Baloch.
“Balochistan is not a mineral colony; it is the homeland of the Baloch nation,” the spokesperson said. He said the right to decide the fate of its resources belongs to the Baloch people, not to “an occupying state or its international partners,” and that projects imposed against their will would only prolong exploitation, resistance, and instability. Lasting peace and prosperity, he said, can come only through Baloch freedom, self-determination, and sovereign control over their resources.
