BALOCH MARCH
WHY IN NEWS ?
- Recently, several Baloch people especially womens marched to Islamabad protesting large scale enforced disappearances and killings in Balochistan.
ABOUT BALOCH MARCH:
- It is a women-led peaceful protest campaign which started on first week of December 2023.
- It is a campaign which highlights historical atrocities and ongoing violations by Pakistan authorities against the Baloch community including enforced and involuntary disappearance, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention and torture.
CONDITION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN:
- Human rights defenders in Pakistan are prone to a range of attacks and abuses, including extra-judicial killings and violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, brutal sectarian violence, abduction and enforced disappearance, surveillance, threats and judicial harassment.
- Many HRDs have even had their offices attacked or burnt down and getting their colleagues killed.
- The existing culture of impunity for killings of HRDs has emboldened perpetrators and fuelled further violence against them.
- The Pakistan government continues to suppress those critical of it’s policies and of Islam under the veil of national security.
- Apart from this, they are further threatened and intimidated by various non-state actors such as militants and interest groups.
- Thus, it is evident that the condition of human rights and its advocates is very dismal and dangerous.
ENFORCED DISAPPEARENCES IN BALOCHISTAN:
- According to the Commission of the Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED- “Enforced Disappearance/Missing Person” are those “picked up/taken into custody by any Law Enforcing/Intelligence Agency, working under the civilian or military control, in a manner which is contrary to the provisions of the law.”
- According to the report, Baloch students studying in other provinces “were also forcibly disappeared” apart from political activists from the province.
- According to the latest annual report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) 2023, “the unlawful disappearance of people, especially of political activists, by state agencies continued with impunity through the year.”
- According to the Voice of Baloch missing person (VOBM), thousands of Balochs have disappeared during the last three decades after being picked up by security agencies.
CAUSES OF INSTABILITY IN BALOCHISTAN PROVINCE:
- Although the province is geographically the biggest and strategically crucial having long border with Iran, the Makran coast and Gwadar but politically Balochistan is least significant in Islamabad.
- LACK OF REPRESENTATION: Out of the total 272 seats in the Parliament, Balochistan (20) has the least number of seats.
- Absence of a towering political leader who could unite all tribes and ethnicities living inside Balochistan creates suitable conditions for instability.
- Pakistan’s political elite look to control Balochistan as its biggest province and strategically located (sharing borders with Iran and Afghanistan and a long coast with Gwadar port) without taking provincial government into confidence.
- Thus, Balochistan complains of being treated as a client state whose resources are being plundered.
- The state also aims to silence the society, manipulate the political leadership and neutralise the militants in Balochistan.
- The mistreatment and unjust detention of Baloch women for peaceful protesting add further pain, potentially exacerbating anger and violent insurgency in Balochistan.
- The use of force, arresting and forcefully sending protestors back by the state despite the Islamabad High Court’s permission to stay and protest led to more protests in Balochistan.
WHY THEY COME TO ISLAMABAD TO PROTEST ?
- The march towards Islamabad is both symbolic and realistic.
- As the real seat of power that deals with Balochistan rests in the national capital, perhaps at the general headquarters, thus the protestors are trying to convey a message.
- It is also symbolic that they believe in the federation, and they are not militants or insurgents, who want to cede from Pakistan.
- The provincial government’s failure of being incapable of addressing disappearances as the perpetrators are linked with the security agencies, the provincial government feels helpless.
- The abdication of providing security by the provincial government to the security agencies or the usurping by the latter of security functions in the province.
WAY FORWARD:
The awakening of growing middle class in the province, youth engagement, and surprisingly strong women participation in the protests and civil society activism can change the course of province.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez observation of solving the problem of missing persons and enforced disappearances “once and for all” is a ray of hope in Balochs fight for rights.
