COAS General Kayani has announced that the army will withdraw from Sui and Gwadar, where units have been engaged in internal security duties, and their function will be taken over by the Frontier Corps, and has given a timeframe of two months for this. He made the announcement while addressing the inauguration of the Government Institute of Technology, Gwadar, which had been set up for the vocational training of local youth. He said that the army had been trying to bring the population into the national mainstream, and mentioned that 5000 Baloch youth would join the army in May. The withdrawal of forces should go some way towards meeting the demands of the Baloch separatists, but it would be also more helpful if there was more cooperation in the case before the Supreme Court of the missing persons, so that at least those lucky people who had relatives alive could get in touch with them. However, General Kayani did not mention the teachings and thought of the Quaid-i-Azam and of Allama Iqbal. Their concept of an Islamic democratic welfare state was the purpose of creating Pakistan, and whose teachings should be propagated widely to make it understood that Pakistan was not created for the hegemony of any one group, but so that the people could live their lives in accordance with their aspirations and in accordance with the thought of the Founding Fathers. Though speaking in Balochistan with reference to events there, General Kayani also referred to the collapse of the USSR, which he rightly said showed how internal rifts broke up a country. Therefore, the efforts, both individual and institutional, at bringing Balochistan into the national mainstream, would only bear fruit if made with the sincerity of purpose. Apart from the missing persons, Balochistan is also being subjected to separatist pressures by the unjustified presence of Indian consulates in Afghan towns bordering Balochistan. This can only be countered by spreading the concepts of the Founding Fathers all over the country, not just in Balochistan. General Kayani, as well as the institution he heads, should be aware that the Founding Fathers were so clear that the military did not have a role in governance that they never even mentioned it. Therefore, spreading the thought of the Founding Fathers, especially their vision of what Pakistan is all about, is essential throughout the country if there is to be any ideological counter to the pernicious beliefs being spread by separatists. The government of the day, which is in power both in the centre and in Balochistan, should work harder to achieve national unity, and not merely leave it to the Army to act as an agent for national unity.