Author: Kashif Baloch
The International law considers involuntary disappearance by State or its organizations as one of the severe crimes against humanity because enforced disappearance amounts to murder of victim in torture cells. The International law which governs the enforced disappearance mostly comprises of “The Rome Statute of International Criminal Court” and United Nations’ “International Convention for the protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006″. These two main sources of International law clearly declare the covert abduction and detention of political opponents as a grave crime against humanity, which is not only attack on an individual but also creates a wider fear and terror among entire citizenry. On the contrary, in Pakistan, the incidents of enforced disappearances have become order of the day. Not a single day passes when news of disappearance Baloch, Pashtoon, Sindhi and Urdu speaking youth does not come at the hands of intelligence agencies. Pakistan’s constitution of 1973 grants twenty-one fundamental rights to its citizens among them the right to equal protection of law, freedom of movement, right to life, dignity, protection against arbitrary arrest and detention inter alia due process of law has been guaranteed as inalienable and scared rights to every citizen. However, the Military Junta in Pakistan has rarely shown any respect for these scared constitutional rights. During one and half decade’s military operation against country’s most underprivileged region, thousands of Baloch as well as Pashtoon, Sindhi and Urdu speaking political activists, dissidents, suspected militants, intellectuals, writers, journalist have been abducted and their whereabouts are not known.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 also sets out the basic and natural fundamental rights of every human being and makes it obligatory upon States to protect the right to life, dignity, right to movement, freedom of thought, opinion, religion and conscience. Nonetheless, ironically in Pakistan, the military dictatorships and sham democratic regimes have always trampled the basic rights of citizens thus, engendering ethnic conflicts within society. General Ayoub Khan’s eleven-years’ martial law ended with Bangladeshi secessionist movement and ultimately East Pakistan broke away. The Zia regime caused immense destruction to the society. It brought drugs, arms, religious extremism, fanaticism, intolerance and many other social evils. In 1999 another military General, Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law that followed worst kind of military operation in Balochistan province. Resultantly, prominent Baloch nationalist leaders, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Mir Balach Marri and thousands of other political activists and common Baloch were killed. Henceforth, the murder and dump policy continues till date and in two decades, the security forces and intelligence agencies have unabatedly continued illegal abduction of Baloch youth, old and even women are not an exception now.
According to The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons around forty thousand Baloch and thirty-five thousand Pashtoon are missing and have been imprisoned in torture cells and many of missing persons have been killed and their bodies were mutilated.
Pakistani security forces not only violate International human rights law but also country’s constitutional provisions which curb arbitrary arrest and extra-judicial killings. The constitutional provisions and common law lay down the right of due process to every suspected criminal that is required to be produced before a Magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest and then prosecuted in court of law if he or she has committed any offence. Then it is the responsibility of court to convict or acquit any offender, as per procedure laid down under law and Constitution, after examining the witnesses and evidences against him and the suspected person is also given full right to defend himself before court of law. However, in Pakistan, the security forces and their intelligence agencies totally disregard the constitutional provisions and universally recognized legal right of due process of law. They with impunity abduct ethnic minority Baloch, Pashtoon, Sindhi and Urdu speaking political activists and intelligentsia arbitrarily. These abductions are aimed to silence the democratic right of expression, which the ethnic minorities have been exercising to raise voice against their exploitation and for their rights within State. But the state is bent upon quelling the genuine rights movements of ethnic minorities through brutal force, which has failed to supress their movement even after two decades of cruel kill and dump policies.
The trauma and agony sustained by parents and families of missing persons are immeasurable. Almost every home is affected because their loved ones have been missing without any clue about their whereabouts for more than a decade and children are waiting for their fathers, mothers for sons, wives for husbands, and sisters for brothers. A mother tells her story in a more painful manner that her children cannot get married because waiting for their father to return home. The agonies faced by families of missing persons in Balochistan cannot be expressed in words, yet the deep and security State and its Junta are striving to secure integrity of Federation through increased incidents of more enforced disappearances, more bloodshed, more tyranny and more excessive use of State power. The sense does not seem to prevail in the corridors of power to realize that the Baloch and Balochistan’s issue basically is not merely a simple law and order problem rather Baloch issue has existed since 1948 and it is a political issue because the Baloch grievances are genuine and the underprivileged Baloch nation wants prosperity, well-being , dignified life having protection of all fundamental and basic human rights, end of all kinds of economic, social and political exploitation, universal and quality education for their children, political, financial and administrative autonomy, clean administration, emancipation from servitude, decadent tribalism, religious extremism and protection of their culture, demography and homeland on which they have been living for centuries with their distinct culture. These demands of common Baloch are quite justified, and these rights cannot be denied to an ethnic minority that possess huge land mass in a multi-ethnic country having rich mineral resources. However, denial of their inalienable rights have pushed Baloch without any choice left than to unleash an armed struggle. The great South African leader, Nelson Mandela rightly stated that “When a man is denied The right to live The life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw”.
The changing global and regional geo-strategic and political scenario demands that the military establishment must end the decade-long military operation in Balochistan and immediately release all political prisoners abducted and detained by secret state organizations. The genuine Baloch leadership must be engaged in dialogue to hammer out an amicable political solution of protracted Baloch conflict that has cost too much bloodshed and state must restore all democratic basic rights of the citizens in this province. The resolution of Baloch conflict through dialogue will guarantee economic and social stability in Pakistan. Therefore, Louis D. Brandeis once quoted as saying that “Repression breads hate; hate menaces stable government”. The present Baloch conflict will benefit neither state nor Baloch in a similar way as in the name of Nationalism, the European states fought many devastating wars but at the end there was only death and destruction. Thus, keeping in view of European experience of wars and conflicts in the name of Nationalism, the only viable solution is end of hostilities and immediately beginning process of dialogue and fraternity. Towards this end, the State has to break the ice.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.