Pakistan, Oct. 23 -- 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...