NOTE: The Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN), Quetta, in collaboration with the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), Islamabad, launched the landmark book ‘Aryana to Balochistan: Odyssey Through Time’ on Thursday, 29 May 2025, at the SVI premises in Islamabad. This important publication traces the historical, cultural, and political evolution of Balochistan from the ancient Aryana civilization to the present day, offering a meticulously researched narrative that bridges the region’s past with its contemporary significance.
The event featured welcome remarks by Dr. Zafar Ali, Director Research of SVI, Brigadier Agha Ahmad Gul (R), Editor-in-Chief and former Head of BTTN, and Dr. Zafar Khan, Executive Director of BTTN, highlighting the academic and strategic value of the book and its relevance for students, researchers, and policymakers alike. The event concluded with an inspiring address by Lt. Gen. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai NI, HI, HI (M) (R), Advisor Development National Command Authority (AD NCA). We are pleased to publish his insightful remarks in full here for the benefit of our readers.
Respected speakers, authors, and editors of book chapters, scholars, members of academia, students, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Assalam Alaikum.
I am honoured to have been asked to give concluding remarks at the end of this intellectually stimulating ceremony, wherein the Book compiled most painstakingly by the Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN) is being launched today. Aryana to Balochistan: Odyssey Through Time is an exhaustive effort by BTTN to bring Balochistan into focus and at the centre of the national conversation in these difficult times for the largest province of Pakistan. It is a remarkable and, in many ways, a unique literary and intellectual endeavour in an otherwise barren landscape on the subject. I have no doubt that in due course, the book will become a landmark reference material, an authoritative account, a gazetteer of sorts of the multi-dimensional aspects of Balochistan.
At the outset, I would like to congratulate the authors, researchers, and contributors of this important book for giving us a holistic and scholarly narrative that traverses the depths of geography, history, socio-economic development, and contemporary security challenges of Balochistan. And this, I would like to point out with much pride and happiness, is by the young academics and researchers of the Province of Balochistan, and Balochistan alone, the proud sons and daughters of the soil, whose authenticity and authority therefore cannot be doubted. Written by the BTTN faculty gives the book a special flavour of local ownership. While the book remains a grand team effort of BTTN, it would be appropriate for me to thank and compliment not only the team as a whole but also the outstanding team leaders of BTTN, Brigadier Agha Ahmed Gul and Dr Zafar Khan.
I think it is important for me to first provide a bit of a background as to what BTTN is all about because many in the audience may not be familiar with its founding, its credentials, and the need for establishing a think tank in Quetta. As you all are well aware, most think tanks in Pakistan are centred on Islamabad. Perhaps a dozen plus, supported and sponsored by important institutions, are flourishing here and doing an excellent work in furthering research and academic debate in multiple areas of Pakistan’s interest, and are promoting Pakistan’s narratives and viewpoints by interacting with international entities, scholars, and academics. The scene in Islamabad is indeed vibrant, intellectually stimulating, and fast-paced. The calendars are loaded, and choice speakers are booked.
But what about the provinces? What about Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan? There was a void, a vacuum, almost a drought, which was waiting to be filled. Pakistan’s national and strategic narratives, while being very strongly furthered in the federal capital, had not been decentralized in all these years to the provincial level for creating a better understanding of Pakistan’s national and strategic narratives, and therefore harmony and integration with the local academics, opinion makers, the media, etcetera. A bold initiative was therefore taken in 2021, four years ago, to head for the provinces and fill the vacuum.
The initiative has so far resulted in the establishment of three full-fledged think tanks in Sindh, Balochistan, and Azad Kashmir, and a pilot cell in Gilgit-Baltistan at the Karakoram University. The three think tanks in the provinces are the Centre for International Strategic Studies Sindh (CISSS) in Karachi, the Balochistan Think Tank Network (BTTN) in Quetta, and the Centre for International Strategic Studies Azad Jammu and Kashmir (CISSAJK) in Muzaffarabad. Besides the high academic criteria for induction strictly on merit, two important criteria were additionally laid down for induction, and which too are being very strictly followed. These are the maintenance of gender balance and of ethnic balance as relevant to each province.
Consequently, you will find in CISSS Karachi researchers who are Sindhi-speaking as well as Urdu-speaking. In BTTN Quetta, the researchers are Pashtuns, Baloch, and Hazaras. Similarly, in CISSAJK at Muzaffarabad, we have Kashmiris only. And of course, there is a healthy blend of young men and women to ensure a fair gender balance, even though, I know, the gents, as always, struggle to keep pace with some of the outstanding ladies in these think tanks. The environment created thereby is one of harmony and integration, a model that I strongly recommend for adoption in other areas of life in Pakistan.
Take my word for it, the faculty of researchers in these think tanks coming from such a rich multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and educational background have done their institutions proud in just about four years. The quality of academic and research work being conducted in Karachi, Quetta, and Muzaffarabad is no less than that in some of the leading think tanks of Islamabad, sometimes even better.
The book being launched today by the BTTN is ample testimony to the quality of work that is undertaken in these newly established think tanks. In this context, I would like to say a few words about the team leaders at BTTN who have made this book possible by their quality leadership, academic excellence, and dedicated effort. Brig Agha Ahmed Gul is an outstanding and upright professional officer who belongs to a breed of soldiers with deep intellect and even deeper understanding of Balochistan and the genius of its people and history. Our personal friendship and association, which transcends to our families as well, goes back to 1978 when we were young, newly married Captains and instructors at the School of Artillery, Nowshera.
As a proud Pashtun from Balochistan who has chosen to settle in his beautiful native city of Quetta after an outstanding military career, Brig Gul was instrumental in raising and nurturing the Balochistan Think Tank Network from its infancy since 2021, with a slight nudge and request from me. Needless to say that he is a go-getter and he has made the BTTN dream come true in a matter of a few years, if I may say, in his intellectual image. The name Balochistan Think Tank Network was his idea. He has now chosen to bid farewell to BTTN while still on a high, having done his job most professionally and splendidly. Thank you very much, sir, and may we see this plant grow and deliver on the aims and objectives for which it has been planted.
I would also like to thank Dr Zafar Khan, the Executive Director of the BTTN since the beginning, for being an excellent lieutenant to Brig Gul. Like Brig Gul, Dr Zafar Khan is a native, proud Pashtun of Balochistan. He has an impeccable and impressive record of academic excellence to his credit.
His Masters and Doctorate are from top Universities of the UK, Hull and Glasgow, respectively. He has vast experience of work at the National Defence University Islamabad, and we were lucky to have plucked him from there to join the BTTN as the Executive Director. We would like to wish you the very best, Dr Zafar, as you take over from Brig Gul. I have no doubt that you will continue the grand journey of BTTN and take it to its destined heights, InshaAllah.
Before I finally say something about the BTTN Book, let me say a few words about my and my wife’s passion and love for Quetta and Balochistan at a personal level. We have the greatest love, regard, and respect for Balochistan and its people because we, as a family, have experienced the love, regard, and respect during our nearly 11 years of stay in different parts of Balochistan at different times in the eighties and the nineties during my active service in the Army. These were golden periods of our lives in Balochistan. Peace, tranquillity, security, food, sajjies and joints, outdoor travel, and picnics at the drop of a hat are embedded in our memories. And I say this from the heart as I recall some of our best times of six postings in Quetta, Zhob-Fort Sandeman, and Sibi at regular intervals, which also included, as our good neighbours, the sand flies of Sibi, and the snakes and scorpions of Zhob-Fort Sandeman.
We have travelled to a rich variety of places from Dera Murad Jamali to Nari, Machh, Kolpur, and Pishin, from Gandhava and Jhal Magsi to Harnai, Loralai, and Dukki, from Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, and Chaghi to Dera Bugti and Kohlu. And most certainly not to miss out on Chaman and Noshki for shopping. Hanna, Urak, Wali Tangi, Spin Lake, Ziarat, and Ormara for picnics. I think we still have some Iranian melamine dinner sets and blankets from Liaqat and Jinnah markets. We have seen it all, and we loved every bit of it. And therefore, with that kind of a memorable background, it was a pleasure and an honour for me to have volunteered in 2021 to help establish the Balochistan Think Tank Network. It’s truly been a labour of love for us. And now, finally, something about the Book ‘Aryana to Balochistan: Odyssey Through Time’.
Ladies and gentlemen. Books are the soul of civilizations. They are not just vessels of knowledge, but repositories of memory. And this particular book, Aryana to Balochistan: Odyssey Through Time, is not only a contribution to literature, it is a gift to the collective conscience of our nation. It captures the geological permanence, historical evolution, and strategic significance of Balochistan in a way that few works have dared to attempt with such clarity and cohesion. I want to extend my sincere congratulations and compliments to the faculty members of BTTN who have authored this work guided so ably by Brig Gul and Dr Zafar. You have done more than write a book.
You have provided us with a mirror, a map, and a message. A mirror to reflect upon where we stand, a map to trace our journey across time and terrain, and a message to inspire informed policymaking and collective consciousness. The book opens with two core chapters: Geography and History, the very pillars upon which any nation’s narrative must be built. Geography is more than maps and mountains. It is the natural script upon which civilizations are written. Balochistan’s geography, its rugged terrain, its arid plains, its coastal belt, and its mineral-rich mountains have shaped the way people live, work, migrate, and defend their livelihoods.
The geographic reality of Balochistan also explains its strategic significance. It connects Central Asian countries to the Arabian Sea, it lies at the crossroads of South and West Asia, and it offers land and sea access to global trade routes. Yet for too long, Balochistan’s geographic centrality has been treated as a strategic opportunity for outsiders, rather than a development platform for its own people.
The second chapter on History guides us through Balochistan’s timeline: from the ancient Aryan settlements to the Kalat Confederacy, from British colonial frontiers to modern Pakistan. This history is not just a series of dates and events, it is a chronicle of resistance, accommodation, statecraft, and community formation. One thing becomes clear: Balochistan is not a new identity. It is a historic entity rooted in dignity, language, tradition, and political agency. The book urges readers to reclaim and respect this historical depth, especially in the national narrative.
As we move to the second part of this remarkable book, Resources and Development, I wish to draw your attention specifically to the chapter on Mines and Mineral Development in Balochistan, which serves as a vital cornerstone in understanding the province’s economic potential. Being a relatively hot topic of late, we know that mines and minerals will consume money and time before they are extracted, refined, exported, and then sold out in the international markets. It is argued that Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan by landmass, is richly endowed with a diverse range of mineral resources that have the potential to redefine the economic trajectory of not only the province but of Pakistan.
From vast reserves of copper and gold in Chaghi to extensive coal deposits in Dukki and chromite in Muslim Bagh, Balochistan possesses a treasure trove beneath its rugged terrain. Major projects such as Reko Diq, estimated to contain 5.9 billion tons of copper-gold ore, and the already-operational Saindak project, stand as critical national assets. The province also hosts deposits of iron ore, zinc, lead, barite, and high-grade marble such as green onyx, which is admired in markets around the globe. Despite these resources, the sector remains underdeveloped due to infrastructural gaps, security concerns, and regulatory inefficiencies.
What makes Balochistan’s resource wealth even more significant is its unique geo-economic location. The province borders Iran and Afghanistan, and connects to the Arabian Sea through Gwadar, making it not just mineral-rich but geo-strategically important. If properly explored, processed, and governed, Balochistan’s mineral reserves could serve as a catalyst for sustainable growth, employment generation, and regional integration.
However, the book does not shy away from highlighting the associated challenges, environmental degradation, uneven benefit distribution, and the marginalization of local communities. It calls for a paradigm shift: from extraction-driven policies to inclusive, transparent, and sustainability-oriented frameworks that ensure minerals become a blessing-not a burden, for the people of Balochistan and Pakistan. The book also focuses on Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries. While nearly 80% of the population is engaged in rural livelihoods, the sector is plagued by outdated irrigation, poor value chains, and a lack of investment. The book reminds us that food security and income security must go hand in hand.
The Chapter on the Financial State of Balochistan is particularly illuminating. It dives into budget allocations, revenue transfers under the NFC Award, and development spending. It raises an essential issue: we cannot expect development outcomes without fiscal empowerment and financial transparency. There is a clear call for reforming provincial finance, strengthening local taxation capacity, and ensuring that federal support is not just constitutional but meaningful. One of the most commendable aspects of this book is the discussion on non-traditional security threats, which is often ignored in mainstream narratives. These chapters discuss population growth, water scarcity, and the lack of technical and skill-based education.
The chapter on Population Growth and Its Impact shows us how unmanaged population expansion is stressing our education systems, job markets, and urban infrastructure. We need a population policy that is rights-based, integrated with service delivery, and supported by community leaders and scholars alike. The following chapter on Water Scarcity and Its Management deserves particular attention. Balochistan is on the frontline of climate change. The drought cycles are lengthening, underground water tables are dropping, and rainfall patterns are shifting. Without urgent investment in water harvesting, efficient irrigation, and community-level conservation, the crisis will deepen. The chapter on Technical and Skill-Based Education gives us a constructive pathway forward. Our youth is hungry for opportunity. But the educational degrees alone are not enough. What they need are technical skills, entrepreneurship training, digital literacy, and access to emerging industries. Skill-based education must be at the core of our development model and not an afterthought.
As a broader part of competing strategies between the leading powers, the book then shifts our focus to global realities. The chapter on Great Power Politics and Balochistan makes it clear that the province is no longer a quiet corner of the world. It is now part of a larger chessboard with China, the United States, the Gulf States, and regional players all having interests in this region. But this strategic attention must not marginalize the voices of local communities. As power shifts globally, the agency of Balochistan’s people must be central to how we engage with international partnerships.
Gwadar Geostrategic and Geo-economic Dynamics offers a compelling vision. Gwadar is not just a port – it is a possibility. A possibility of trade, jobs, connectivity, and economic revival. But this possibility will only be realized if it is inclusive, sustainable, and participatory. It must be integrated with national development policies that are sensitive to local culture, ecology, and economy. To sum up, Aryana to Balochistan is more than just a compilation of chapters. It is a call for reflection, a blueprint for policymaking, and a mirror to our past and future.
I would urge academic institutions, civil society, and government bodies to use this book as a resource and a reference, especially for curriculum development, public policy debates, and regional planning. In conclusion, I once again commend the authors of this young think tank of BTTN for their immense contribution. I hope “Aryana to Balochistan: Odyssey Through Time” becomes a widely read and discussed book, especially among our youth, because an informed youth is the best guarantee for a secure and prosperous Balochistan. To the faculty of BTTN: thank you for this intellectual gift. You have upheld the true spirit of scholarship, not just to understand the world, but to change it for the better.
May “Aryana to Balochistan: Odyssey Through Time” reach every library, every policy table, and every young mind that seeks to understand our past and shape our future. The ancient Greeks spoke of an “odyssey” – a long journey home. For Balochistan, the odyssey is not just about reclaiming its past glory but charting a future where it is no longer a pawn in great games but a player in its own destiny.
As I end, I would like to express a sincere hope and prayer for Balochistan and its beautiful people. May Allah give us all the wisdom, the large heartedness, the good sense to return to the glorious and peaceful days of life in Balochistan which I mentioned earlier; may Allah give us the ability and clarity of mind to see through the games that are being played by our enemies; may Allah bring peace, prosperity and happiness to Balochistan and Pakistan.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
