The Sindh government issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) to Aurat March organisers for a gathering near Sea View in Karachi on Sunday, May 10, but imposed 28 conditions, including a bar on the participation or support of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), it emerged on Saturday.
According to the permission letter issued by the office of the Deputy Commissioner South Karachi, the participation or support of “proscribed” organisations, including the BYC and JSQM, will be strictly prohibited.
Journalist Kiyya Baloch, who shared the permission letter on social media, said several conditions were controversial, but that the clause barring BYC and JSQM required particular attention.
“If even a protest has to be held within the limits set by the state, then is this march resistance or merely a symbolic activity?” he wrote.
Journalist Ahmad Noorani also criticised the condition, questioning whether Baloch people were being treated as equal citizens.
“Are the Baloch not part of Pakistan? Is a Baloch woman not a woman?” he wrote, adding that the state was depriving Baloch people of rights available to people in other provinces.
BYC leader Dr Sabiha Baloch questioned the legal basis for describing the organisation as “proscribed”, asking when and under which law or court order the BYC had been declared banned.
“The question is: under which law has the Baloch Yakjehti Committee been ‘proscribed’?” she wrote. “When was it declared banned? Which court imposed a ban on it?”
She said that if no legal basis existed, the government had no authority to bar the participation of any political or social group in a public protest.
Dr Sabiha said the restriction was, in effect, an admission that the BYC had built what she described as an “effective resistance against Baloch genocide, enforced disappearances and state violence.”
“This fear, this repression and these restrictions are proof of the strength of our struggle,” she said. “Because if our voice were ineffective, the state would not have felt fear at the name of BYC even at the Aurat March.”
In a separate statement, the BYC criticised the Sindh government for describing it as a “banned organisation” in the permission conditions.
The group said the decision to list the BYC, along with JSQM, as banned amounted to what it described as “state fascism” against the Baloch people.
“When and under which court or law was the Baloch Yakjehti Committee declared banned?” the statement said, adding that no court in Pakistan had declared the organisation unlawful.
The BYC described itself as a democratic public movement in Balochistan against human rights violations, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial actions and what it called the “Baloch genocide”.
It said the state had, over the past year, attempted to suppress the movement through force, but had failed to present “a single piece of legal evidence” against the organisation.
The BYC further alleged that its leaders remain imprisoned in what it called unconstitutional detention despite facing bailable charges, adding that anti-terrorism laws, including the Anti-Terrorism Act and Fourth Schedule provisions, are being used against peaceful political workers, students and those raising their voices for human rights.
Referring to the Aurat March conditions, the group said separating the BYC by designating it as banned was “shameful and condemnable”.
“These facts clearly show that the state is using law and force as weapons against the Baloch people so that the Baloch voice can be pushed to the wall at all costs,” the statement said.
The BYC said it would continue to raise what it described as ongoing human rights violations, enforced disappearances, political revenge and state repression in Balochistan.
“We appeal to human rights institutions, women’s movements, democratic forces and justice-loving people around the world to stand with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee and the peaceful struggle of the Baloch people,” the statement said.