Baluchistan

Baluchistan is a region of the United Islamic Republic inhabited historically by Balochi people which enjoys limited self government. Baluchistan also contained significant numbers of the Arabs, Persians and Pashtuns to the extent that no single ethnic group had a majority by 2030.
== History ==
=== 2000-2017 ===
For most of the first two decades of the 21st century, what would become the UIR region of Baluchistan was divided between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban gained some support among conservative Sunni Muslim Baluchis.
=== Unification of Baluchistan within the UIR and the Formation of the Baluchistan Regional Government: 2018-2030 ===
The UIR formed the Baluchistan Regional Government modeled after the KRG in 2018 with its regional capital in the Iranian city of Zahedan. The BRG included Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan Province, former Afghanistan's Sistan region and former Pakistan's Baluchistan region. The BRG had a total population of over 18 million from its inception. Farsi, Arabic, Baluchi, and Pashto were all official regional languages although Tehran pushed Farsi as a language of higher education, government and inter ethnic communication to encourage some cultural uniformity throughout the vast UIR.
Although many Baluchis had wanted an independent Baluchistan and had waged an insurgency against Iran as well as the former nation of Pakistan, most Baluchis grudgingly acknowledged the BRG was the best deal they were likely to get. They also took note that Baluchistan was united for the first time in the modern era under the UIR.
Baluchistan remained one of the more Sunni regions of the UIR although by 2030 over a third of the population identified as Shia and most of the educated and urban population was fluent in Farsi as well as Baluchi or Pashto.
=== Emergence as a Major Player in the Solar Industry: 2031-2050 ===
In the 2030s, the UIR began constructing vast solar farms throughout the Baluchistan region taking advantage of new technology that vastly reduced cost of solar power while greatly increasing its efficiency. Baluchistan began supplying a significant amount of India's electricity needs by 2035 via HVDCs stretching under the Arabian Sea. This brought a gradual increase in wealth in the mostly destitute Baluchistan region.
Category:Regions
Category:Middle East
Category:South Asia