IT could be out-of-the-box thinking, but to what end is unclear at the moment. What one can posit about the Balochistan Assembly’s resolution to approach the Khan of Kalat, Agha Suleman Dawood Khan, to return from self-exile in London and assume a role in restoring peace to Balochistan is that the initiative could mean different things to different people in the province’s fractured political landscape.

When the 2013 elections brought moderate nationalists to power in Balochistan, observers deemed it a positive development because the National Party was seen as better placed to address the many problems bedevilling the province, including the insurgency as well as the feelings of extreme alienation that decades of ill-conceived policies had engendered among its people.

Fundamental to any chance of reaching out to disaffected Baloch was that the establishment abandon its unconscionable kill-and-dump policy to crush the separatist movement. However, the powers that be have continued to follow the same playbook, in the process undermining the Balochistan government.

From his weak position, Dr Malik’s oft-stated intention to reach out to the leadership of militant groups was scarcely viable.

His support for the resolution could be another attempt in this direction, taking into account the Khan of Kalat’s standing in Balochistan, both in terms of tribal hierarchy as well as for historical reasons. The latter go back to the pre-Partition days when the princely state of Kalat, then ruled by the present Khan’s grandfather, held a pre-eminent position in the tribal confederacy that included much of central and southern Balochistan.

However, Dr Malik may be clutching at straws, for many insurgents in the province consider the Kalat rulers as ‘traitors’ to the Baloch cause for having signed the Instrument of Accession to join Pakistan in 1948.

As such, the militants may see overtures to Dawood Khan as further evidence of the state’s strategy of using proxies to further its ends. Indeed, the establishment has much to gain if the Khan can be persuaded to return; it is not in Pakistan’s interest for other regional players to be able to approach him or for him to go to the ICJ with Baloch grievances as he vowed to at a grand jirga convened after Akbar Bugti’s murder in 2006.

Whatever the motives behind this recent resolution, the Khan’s return could be a catalyst for starting a crucial dialogue on important issues; that in itself would be a welcome change from the present suffocating impasse.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014