IT is to all intents and purposes a politically forgotten province. Thus far, Balochistan has not featured in the election campaigns of most national political parties. It is not even clear if the leaderships of the major political parties intend to visit the province before July 25.

The deafening political silence on Balochistan ought to be of concern to all democratic-minded and right-thinking citizens of the country. In every way, politically, socially, economically and in terms of security, Balochistan is a province that is hurting.

The latest spell of national political engineering began in Balochistan with the snatching away from the PML-N of the coalition government it led in the province. The long-running security troubles in Balochistan have scarcely improved.

Socioeconomically, conditions in large parts of Balochistan are routinely ranked at the bottom of provincial and district indices. While Balochistan may have the fewest seats among the provinces in the National Assembly, the dire situation in the province ought to have drawn the attention of the national political leadership.

That the extremely worrying situation in Balochistan has not attracted the attention of the national political leadership in their campaigns so far is itself a new worry. From the very beginning of the latest low-level Baloch insurgency to wrack the province, it had been apparent that only a political solution could put an end to the violence.

After the regime of Pervez Musharraf ended in 2008, five years of a PPP-led provincial government scarcely brought about any improvement. In 2013, the return to electoral politics of moderate Baloch nationalist parties, which had boycotted the 2008 polls, created fresh hope in the beleaguered and troubled province.

For a while it had appeared possible that Baloch political moderates may be able to persuade the security establishment to try and make peace with Baloch separatists. But that hope quickly dissipated, and Balochistan settled into a familiar pattern of a political government without much power and a security establishment controlling more than it should.

Yet, for all the failures so far, if true and positive change is to be effected in Balochistan, the national political leadership cannot abandon the province. Indeed, the collapse of the PML-N-led provincial government following what was effectively an intra-party coup, underlined the dangers of a political vacuum in an unstable province.

Instead of national politics helping stabilise Balochistan, the province was turned into a breeding ground for political conspiracy at the national level. If the major political parties believe that by all but ignoring Balochistan in their campaigns their electoral hopes in the other provinces and at the centre will not be negatively affected, they are likely mistaken.

Teetering as the democratic project may be, the national political parties ought to consider that the federation cannot be strengthened if one province is virtually cut off from the rest. Please, campaign in and for Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2018