There are two ways of discussing Balochistan. One is the way Islamabad and Quetta have traditionally preferred: highways, minerals, ports, security operations, development packages and billions of rupees. The other is to ask a much simpler question. If a pregnant woman in Awaran, Washuk or Dera Bugti develops complications at midnight, how long does it take before a qualified doctor reaches her – or she reaches one?

That question tells us considerably more about the relationship between the citizen and the state than another development package ever will.

Provincial Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar, speaking recently about Balochistan’s health sector, presented an unusually candid picture. His government is spending more, launching new projects, experimenting with telemedicine, ambulances and digital monitoring. But he also acknowledged the problem that no budget speech can abolish: Balochistan is enormous, its population scattered and its health infrastructure painfully difficult to operate.

Kakar’s experiment with digital attendance and AI-based human-resource management may ultimately prove more important than some of the more glamorous projects.

Kakar’s experiment with digital attendance and AI-based human-resource management may ultimately prove more important than some of the more glamorous projects.

This geography........

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