Trust is not a slogan. It is the most expensive political capital. Nations can survive economic recessions; they can survive security setbacks, but no federation survives a sustained deficit of trust between its people and its state.

Pakistan today stands at such a juncture. Our debates are dominated by inflation, IMF programmes, terrorism and institutional friction. Yet beneath all these symptoms lies a deeper crisis: the erosion of “Eitmad.” Nowhere is this erosion more consequential and more painful than in Balochistan.

To understand Balochistan, Islamabad has historically relied on two frameworks. I call them the two failed lenses.

The first lens is the security lens. It views Balochistan primarily as a law-and-order problem. In this view, dissent is seen as insurgency, and insurgency is to be managed through force. No one denies that the state must protect its citizens from terror. But security alone cannot produce loyalty. You can clear an area; you cannot win a heart with a checkpoint.

Benazir Bhutto Shaheed did not believe Balochistan needed to be won. She........

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