Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik revealed to the National Assembly, while responding to a point of order on Wednesday, that there was a conspiracy to plot violence in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan, devised in Kabul. He told the House that five people had been given the task, and that the issue would be taken up with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan authorities would be apprised of the information gathered by the Pakistani intelligence agencies about these five people. He did not mention whether they had been arrested. If they could not be arrested, perhaps by reason of diplomatic immunity, they could at least be expelled to their home country, and their Pakistani agents arrested. Even with a strict crackdown, the Afghan authorities are unlikely to admit complicity. The PPP government should realize that this conspiracy, against Balochistan in particular, and against Pakistan as a whole, would not be possible without US support. It is obvious, therefore, that its total support of the USA has not paid any dividends, and instead has been misused by the USA to work against the country. Another aspect that deserves attention is that the areas of southern Afghanistan bordering Pakistan are the hotbed of resistance to the American occupation of that country, and the USA has not only said that it wants to launch drone strikes on Quetta, but has been behind media reports of the 'Quetta Shura. Balochistan has also been the battleground for Gwadar seaport, gas imports to India and now minerals. The spillover of the US-China rivalry has involved Pakistan, more specifically Balochistan, which also borders Iran, which the USA wants to attack. At the same time, Mr Malik should remember that the conspiracy would not have taken place in a vacuum. The Baloch are upset at the lack of development in their province, and further that whatever development takes place does not include them. This makes the province liable to exploitation by outside powers, unfriendly to Pakistan, as the USA is, despite the war on terror, or India, which Mr Malik had before said was involved in the province. The complaint of involvement has not been pressed home hard enough to India, which raises the prospect that the present government will not present its Balochistan case to Afghanistan forcefully enough, because of extraneous pressures and misplaced caution. Not only must the foreign prosecutors of this conspiracy be told firmly that Pakistan views this as an unfriendly act, but the actual performers of deeds of violence must be prosecuted according to law.