On 16th November, the Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research organized a launch event of its report titled “Baloch Youth Political Paradigm: Contextualising Perceptions”. The report was articulated in a coherent manner to elucidate the social developmental prospects of Balochistan. The discussion revolved around performance indicators of the provincial government; emphasis was laid to solve problems persisting for decades. The discussion further expanded towards the realms of successes and failures in the region viz. Balochistan.

Another central point that was given ample significance was the impact of CPEC on the youth, its changing trends and how it could evolve the way the youth could think. It is pertinent to mention that result shows the confidence of youth in CPEC is substantial.

The President of CSCR, Mr. Anas Abdullah presented his insights about the survey which has been conducted in Balochistan recently. He addressed numerous problems prevailing in the province including the related academic nomenclature. Except for the infrastructure development, law and order situation, and illiteracy reduction, in almost every performance indicator a considerable majority has ranked government performance as poor.  In context of report, Mr. Anas while pointing out the various internal and external problems Balochistan faces; also elucidated the reasons that drive these issues in transforming from mere trivial problems to massive hurdles in the road to development. He further accentuated that it is imperative to understand the ground realities, perceptions and reservations of people accordingly; without adequate knowledge of the problems it is close to impossible to articulate a well grafted solution.  He evidently mentioned that the respondents of this survey were the most educated people of the province, and their perspective should be given weightage.

The other speaker, Lt Gen (R) Naeem Lodhi shared observations about his posting in Balochistan. He said that not only the miscreants were involved in destroying Balochistan, but Sardars are also against the development in the province. According to him, there is a dire need to understand the sociology, economics and psychology of Balochistan. The assistance of Baloch scholars should be taken in this concern. He further analysed that the Baloch brethren should be made aware of the benefits of cosmopolitanism in the urban centres on the pattern of Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar. He further went on to insinuate that the Balochistan government should prioritize its responsibilities by engaging the youth in nation-building so that the youth does not become fodder for hostile foreign intelligence agencies. He further enunciated that the political and security imbalance that has been created by the Indo-American nexus needs to be offset by strengthening our alliance with China, Russia, and Turkey. He was adamant on the fact that Pakistan should realize the significance of Balochistan in general and Gwadar specifically as they are the linchpins of the CPEC project.

The Director General of the Institute for Strategic Studies, Research & Analysis (ISSRA), Maj Gen. Muhammad Samrez Salik also spoke about the security situation in Balochistan, and shed light on the soft measures that should be undertaken to douse the negativity.  He pointed out that if Pakistan has to pace up their process of development they have to give Balochistan two essential things. First, its due share in the process and second, appreciation and equal consideration. Without these two things, Pakistan cannot develop or let alone flourish. Over 16,000 Baloch youth have been inducted in Pakistan Army, he said.