‘Grand dialogue’

THE country’s top civil and military leaders are absolutely right when they say that dialogue and development are needed to address Balochistan’s crises.

But perhaps one should recall that many earlier attempts by the state to bring peace to the province were stalled or remain unimplemented. In order to truly stabilise Balochistan and bring lasting peace to this troubled province, a credible political process must begin, with the state guaranteeing that it will fully implement previous promises, as well as new agreements.

While speaking at the Balochistan National Workshop in Islamabad recently, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for a “grand, frank and meaningful dialogue” to address the province’s issues. He added that the province’s people had first right over its resources. In a similar vein the chief of defence forces stressed the need for empowering Balochistan’s youth.

It is certainly welcome that the rulers see the need to tackle Balochistan’s political problems through dialogue. While kinetic measures are needed to deal with immediate terrorist threats, the underlying factors fuelling discontent can only be handled through a political process. The state must keep in mind previous attempts to address the province’s problems.

For example, the PPP government had in 2009 launched the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package. Despite the passage of 17 years, many of the package’s key points remain unimplemented. For example, it had proposed releasing political workers, except those involved in heinous crimes. However, over the past few months, we have seen peaceful activists rounded up and thrown in jail. Similarly, the 2009 package had sought to address the province’s socioeconomic woes; suffice it to say, social indicators in Balochistan remain miserable. The PML-N had launched a package of its own in 2015. Much of that scheme also remains unfulfilled. CPEC was similarly supposed to transform the province’s fortunes. It has not.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, the state must implement what it had promised in these packages. Many of these schemes’ salient points reflect the demands of the province’s nationalist politicians. Therefore, to implement these promises in full, a grand dialogue should bring on board the province’s genuine political leadership, as well as peaceful activists, while a verifiable and transparent mechanism needs to be worked out to help implement previous and new promises.

The past few months have seen a sharp spike in terrorist activity in Balochistan. The only sustainable way of addressing the insurgency is to supplement kinetic actions with a genuine political process that can, in the long-term, eliminate the underlying factors that are fuelling discontent.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2026