Lahore, Feb. 15 -- Former Balochistan chief minister Akhtar Mengal delivered a scathing assessment of the situation in the province while addressing a gathering organised by the Asma Jahangir Foundation, arguing that decades of force have failed to resolve what he described as an essentially political dispute.

Mengal said repeated attempts to subdue dissent through military operations, arrests and enforced disappearances had only deepened the divide between the federation and Baloch citizens. Quoting revolutionary poet Habib Jalib, he remarked that Balochistan was not simply "burning" but had already been reduced to ashes.

Tracing the roots of mistrust, the former CM referred to early understandings involving Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the...