There is no shortcut to understanding Balochistan. To view it through the last two years is to miss it. That is why every serious briefing in Quetta begins where it must, with Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the Instrument of Accession signed by the Khan of Kalat, which affirms that Balochistan is part of Pakistan. That document remains the constitutional anchor. What complicates it, since, is not one grievance but layers of history, geography, and external interference.

To understand where Pakistan stands on Balochistan today, four imprints cannot be ignored.

First, the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006. For the state, it was an operation against an armed insurgent who challenged its writ. For sections of the media and politics, he was our man who crossed over, and it should have been handled differently. The convergence now is clear. It was a rupture; perhaps it could have been managed better. Yet it exposed an enduring truth. The Sardari system has been part of the problem, not the solution.

The Sardari nizam is not folklore. It is a structure of control that has held Balochistan hostage. It captures funds, decides who gets a job, a scholarship, justice, and who does not. It survives by keeping the common Baloch dependent and the state distant. It has manufactured poverty by design, because an educated Baloch youth does not need a Sardar to mediate with Pakistan. As long as the Sardar is the sole contractor........

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