Editorial
The conviction of Baloch Yakjehti Council leader Dr. Mahrang Baloch and her colleagues to life imprisonment raises urgent questions about the state’s long-term strategy in Balochistan. Peaceful political engagement demands credible interlocutors. Removing civilian voices from public life inevitably shrinks the space for dialogue and genuine reconciliation.
A lasting resolution to Balochistan’s grievances has always required political responses, not purely administrative ones. History, both within Pakistan and far beyond its borders, repeatedly demonstrates that security-centric approaches, pursued without serious political outreach, deepen alienation rather than resolve it. The lesson is neither new nor complicated. Force suppresses. It rarely heals.
Those who have championed negotiated settlements with armed non-state actors across Pakistan’s western border would do well to apply the same logic closer to home. Unarmed political activists seeking constitutional redress through legal means deserve the same principled engagement the state extends in regional diplomacy. The inconsistency is glaring and its costs are real.
Pakistan’s diplomatic posture has long favoured dialogue over confrontation in regional conflicts. Extending that same commitment to its own citizens, particularly those who have deliberately chosen peaceful and lawful expression, would strengthen the state’s moral standing rather than compromise it. Closing doors against legitimate voices does not extinguish dissent. It redirects it toward paths that serve no responsible interest.
The political space must remain open. Conviction of peaceful activists does not resolve the underlying crisis. It compounds it. Balochistan’s integration into the national mainstream depends not on silencing those who speak but on genuinely hearing what they say. The state’s strength is best demonstrated through confidence in dialogue, not through courtrooms that remove voices the nation urgently needs to engage.
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