Is There a Way Forward for Balochistan?

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the situation in the Balochistan province of Pakistan is complicated. But as time goes on without meaningful effort to create sustainable ways to peace and cooperation, Balochistan and Pakistan risk losing everything. Balochistan’s 134,000 square miles of rugged mountains, deserts, valleys, lakes and rivers rest on buried gas, untapped oil, indigenous iron, copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, lead, zinc, barite, chromite, coal, gypsum, limestone (marble), among a host of other natural resources. But much of the population lives at a poverty level of sub-Saharan Africa. And it’s sparsely populated. While it makes up about 44 percent of the area of Pakistan, only about 15 million people of Pakistan’s total population of about 245 million live in Balochistan. Shezad Baloch, Madison resident and University of Wisconsin employee and native of Balochistan says that things are getting worse for everyone in the country. Recently peaceful protest leader Dr. Mahrang Baloch was given two life sentences for incitement, with these charges and sentencing condemned by UN experts as well as humanitarian organizations. Pakistan’s military leaders are seeing themselves as a hammer and the natives of Balochistan as a nail, which tends not to lead to positive resolution of their differences. And obviously the population is tired, frustrated and angry. We thank Shezad Baloch for speaking with us frankly and for Amitabh Pal, Gil Halsted and Laila Ahmed for adding to the discussion. * Bonus Extra: A conversation about the two nation theory Out of the debate over how to share political power between the Muslim League and the Congress Party leading up to Indian independence grew a theory that helped fuel the decision to divide the subcontinent into two nations, one for Muslims and one for Hindus. In this extended interview ... Amitabh Pal who grew up in a Hindu family and Shezad Baloch and Leila Ahmed who grew up in Pakistani Muslim families, talk about what the theory has meant for them and how it continues to complicate the relationship between Pakistan and India. * The discussion about Balochistan ends at 26:40. The conversation about the two nation theory begins at 26:45. Hear Shezad Baloch’s previous interviews on WORT: February 2026 http://www.wortfm.org/balochistan-must-it-be-a-perpetual-flashpoint/ August 24 2025 http://www.wortfm.org/pakistani-power-has-a-moment/ February 2025 http://www.wortfm.org/what-weve-got-here-is-failure-to-communicate/ September 2024 http://www.wortfm.org/balochistan-ancient-land-modern-treachery/ February 2024 http://www.wortfm.org/whats-next-for-pakistan/ Recent Articles: Countercurrents, July 2026 http://countercurrents.org/2026/07/balochistan-under-curfew-power-militarization-and-the-collapse-of-human-rights/ Eurasia Review Op Ed, July 2026 http://www.eurasiareview.com/author/nilesh-kunwar/ Outside Quetta photo by Dr Muhammad Amer on Unsplash