This kind of stuff that happend in Balochistan now happens in KPK too thanks to the great leadership of our lumber 1 border districts of Sindh and Punjab are not too far they already manage to do an attack in Gilgit Baltistan a few weeks back
as usual hard state goes brrrr
You are assuming the "hard state" is something other than just a label for image projection.
With Pakistan it is a sheer impossibility regardless of how hard of a shell the top man has because it relies on centralized coercion - danda - rather than actual distributed multi institutional strength.
For an already with chasms- multi ethnic - religious extremist plagued state like Pakistan you cannot apply a hard state because it functions in generally homogenized societies. You could do a hard state in Norway with mostly Norwegians(as an example).
Think of the OODA Loop here from a pure systems perspective - optimal loops assume flawless intelligence gathering, seamless communication channels, rational discussion, and swift action where ALL actors operate honestly with no personal agenda.
This cannot work in Pakistan based on what it structurally is.
Today's situation means there is massive amounts of data (
for which you have little processing capacity because you never properly invested in data centers because guess which people from which generation have been in charge). Even if you could collect that data from competing multi dimensional crises your Observe and Orient become chaotic leading to the rigid one dimensional responses we see today to what are complex problems.
Heck, even if we solve that and I say assume Hafiz FM and Khadim ji are the most honest and competent leaders ever, the state apparatus itself is rotten due to years of institutional washover and "dictatorial cabal" mentality across institutions and offices which creates massive friction to get any "decision" and "action" done because channels of communication are often compromised by bureaucratic inertia, conflicting institutional interests, and actors who do not operate with pure intentions.
AND FINALLY - the biggest flaw with the "hard state" is that it assumes its "hardness" is essentially just a facade for incompetence. Think of a parent who does not know how to deal with a child so only resorts to abuse - eventually the child will learn to adapt and the effect will go away making the child even more rebellious.
BUT, because that way of "parenting" is all that your culture teaches - well, that is what you will create.
