Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area and one of its most resource‑rich, has long been at the heart of a deep‑seated conflict between resource extraction and indigenous rights. The region holds a disproportionate share of Pakistan’s minerals, energy reserves, and strategic coastal infrastructure, yet its Baloch population remains largely excluded from decision‑making, benefits, and basic development. In recent years, the expansion of extractive projects, security‑driven mega‑infrastructure schemes, and a heavy‑handed state response to dissent have intensified grievances over land, livelihoods, and political autonomy, pushing questions of indigenous rights to the centre of Balochistan’s crisis.
Balochistan hosts roughly half of Pakistan’s discovered mineral wealth, with over 50 minerals identified and around 39 actively exploited under more than 1,600 licenses. The province accounts for about 90% of Pakistan’s copper reserves, substantial gold, sizable coal deposits, chromite, barite, marble, and other industrial minerals. Hydrocarbon resources are also significant. Balochistan’s gas fields contribute an estimated 15–20% of Pakistan’s GDP, and the Sui gas field alone has supplied the national grid since the 1950s. In addition, the province holds vast copper–gold porphyry systems in Chagai with projections of over 12 metric tons of copper and around 650 metric tons of gold at Saindak and similar deposits.
Despite this wealth, Balochistan’s population remains one of the poorest in Pakistan. The Baloch Board of Investment and Trade notes that the province produces key minerals such as coal, copper, and lead‑zinc barite, yet revenue and employment from these sectors largely flow to federal structures and private or foreign companies rather than to local communities. International and local human rights groups have repeatedly documented that major projects, including the China‑Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and port‑city development in Gwadar, prioritize national and foreign strategic interests over local consent and equitable benefit‑sharing. Baloch activists argue that CPEC and associated mining and energy ventures function as plundering of Balochistan’s resources, with limited local hiring, inadequate environmental safeguards, and forced displacement of communities from land and coastal areas.
The connection between resource exploitation and indigenous rights is visible in Gwadar. The port city, heavily promoted as a CPEC flagship, lacks basic services such as clean drinking water and reliable electricity despite hosting multi‑billion‑dollar infrastructure. Local fishermen, who have relied on the sea for generations, report harassment, restrictions on access to traditional fishing grounds, and loss of livelihoods as commercial and security‑related projects expand. Simultaneously, Baloch activists and civil society documentation highlight that jobs and contracts around Gwadar and other CPEC corridors are often awarded to non‑Baloch workers and firms, reinforcing perceptions of economic exclusion and extraction.
These economic grievances intersect with a broader pattern of political and human rights violations. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a network of Baloch women and youth activists, has led protests demanding accountability for enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and the exploitation of Balochistan’s resources. In 2024, the Baloch National Gathering brought thousands on a march to Gwadar, calling for basic rights and an end to repression. Pakistani authorities responded with mass detentions and internet shutdowns in Gwadar, drawing criticism from Human Rights Watch and other international monitors. In March 2025, Quetta police opened fire on a peaceful BYC protest in front of the University of Balochistan, killing three people and injuring many others, after which the sit‑in holding the bodies of the victims was raided by police using batons and tear gas.
The crackdown has heavily targeted human rights defenders themselves. UN independent experts have reported that several leading BYC members, including Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch, were arrested, detained under counter‑terrorism and public‑order laws, and subjected to incommunicado detention or enforced disappearances. Pakistan’s own human rights‑monitoring networks, such as PAKISTAN ADVOCACY FOR COURAGE AND KEENNESS (PAANK), document that between January and June 2025, Balochistan saw 785 cases of enforced disappearances, 261 released survivors of torture, and 121 extrajudicial killings. Many of these victims are students, activists, and journalists, and the campaign is widely described as a systematic effort to silence dissent and suppress Baloch identity and political mobilization.
UN human rights experts have urged Pakistan to release detained Baloch defenders, end enforced disappearances, and respect the rights to peaceful assembly and expression. Civil society groups and diaspora networks have similarly called on the European Union and other partners to scrutinize Pakistan’s trade and investment frameworks, including the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+), given the scale of alleged rights violations in Balochistan. Academic and policy analyses further warn that the combination of resource‑driven militarisation, environmental degradation, and unequal distribution of benefits in Balochistan risks deepening conflict and undermining long‑term stability.
Resolving the tension between resource exploitation and indigenous rights in Balochistan would require more than ad hoc reforms or rhetoric about development. It would entail legally binding mechanisms for free, prior, and informed consent, fair revenue‑sharing reflecting the province’s share of national mineral wealth, protection of fishing and agricultural livelihoods, and an end to extrajudicial detention and enforced disappearances. Without these measures, the pattern of extraction without meaningful participation will continue to fuel resentment, militancy, and human rights crises in Balochistan, even as the region’s resources power Pakistan’s and its partners’ strategic ambitions.
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