IF it weren’t for the history and the present context, it would have been a grand announcement. Balochistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pledged, will see investments on a large scale in the next few years, from the long-hyped new trading hub in Gwadar to investments in health, education, technical training and other infrastructure. If the PML-N sticks to its pledges, the impact on Balochistan would not be insignificant. By any measure, use any metric and the Baloch areas of Balochistan are at or near the bottom of national socio-economic rankings. Investments in health, education and infrastructure are truly needed. But does the PML-N’s latest plan hold the key to addressing Balochistan’s chronic problems? The answer, hardly unsurprisingly, would have to be no.

Without security there can be little development, progress or prosperity — and no amount of money thrown at Balochistan will change that. Over the last five years, owing to the 18th Amendment and the subsequent NFC award, Balochistan has been flush with cash. The amounts involved are staggering and stunning — and yet, five years on, nothing has changed in Balochistan. It is not just that the previous provincial government was non-representative, given that it was elected after moderate Baloch politicians boycotted the 2008 polls and so was only interested in looking after itself. Neither was it simply because the previous government selected unfit and unqualified bureaucrats to run the province. The truth is that Balochistan’s problem is about state policies towards it and, after that, about structural problems that no amount of money can cure without there first being meaningful and wide-ranging reforms of the relevant governance structures.

Take for example this notion of a brand new city in Gwadar that will be the pride and joy of the province. The Baloch militants and even non-violent provincialists see Gwadar as an attempt to dilute the Baloch presence in Balochistan — the theory being that a thriving new city will attract many from other ethnicities looking for economic opportunities. Meanwhile, nearly everything the state needs to build a new city — from manpower to administrators to skilled professionals — will have to be imported from elsewhere, at a time where, as underlined by two reports in this newspaper this week, non-Baloch are leaving rather than returning to the region. It may be possible to build an airport, and much of the seaport is already in place, but can Gwadar really be anything other than a high-security fortress or a ghost town in the circumstances? Sadly, the PML-N appears to be falling into the old trap of surrendering security policy and turning to economic plans as a viable alternative. What happened to all the promises the PML-N, and Nawaz Sharif in particular, made before the election? The original diagnosis is very different from the treatment the PML-N is now advocating.