Pakistan, Oct. 11 -- Balochistan is a province of big skies and long horizons. It covers roughly 44 per cent of Pakistan's land, yet only a small share of the population, often put at around 6 per cent, lives within it. Anyone who has driven its highways knows what that means: hours of mountains and open desert with little else for company. That distance is part of Balochistan's character and also its great challenge. Every school, clinic and water line has to cross a lot of ground before it reaches the people it is meant for.

That is why the pace of development work across the province deserves attention, and why the news from Dera Bugti is worth more than a passing glance. Under the Balochistan Special Development Initiative, projects ...