December 19, 2024
By Nadeem Khan
QUETTA
In the heart of Balochistan, a young artist has been channeling her creativity into powerful statements about human rights. Hani Baloch, who has recently completed her Bachelors in Arts from the University of Balochistan in Quetta, crafts artwork that depicts one of the region’s most pressing issues: enforced disappearances. Hani has been using her expressions to shed light on such human rights challenges in her homeland, with a particular focus on the controversial issue of missing persons.
Even when she began her graduation programme, Hani had already made up her mind to do her final thesis project on the issue of enforced disappearances in the province.
“For members of a family with a missing person, there is an agonizing and prolonged wait that ends with them finding a dead body that too has been mutilated beyond recognition,” says Hani, adding that some of the dead bodies of those previously missing even had their eyes gouged out. “Family members of missing persons go through a period of extreme pain and anguish indescribable in words.”
‘I’m a victim too’
For Hani the pain is also personal.
“My family too has seen and suffered the torment of many loved ones who have gone missing,” says Hani. “I’m a victim too.”
Baloch says she has experienced the trauma of enforced disappearances, of close relatives being gunned down in fake encounters, and in retrieving the mutilated bodies of relatives who are reported missing.
According to Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), the scale of the crisis is staggering – approximately 7,000 individuals are reported missing in Balochistan. The federal government’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances presents a different figure, having registered 2,752 cases as of January this year. The situation remains contentious, with security forces facing accusations of involvement in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings – allegations that officials consistently deny.
“Before starting my art course five years ago, I liked to sketch but when I gained admission to the university, it was painting that quickly became my passion and I began feeling that I should pursue it forever,” Baloch explains her artistic journey. The art student says she wants to focus on themes such as the issue of enforced disappearances, fake encounters, and students’ issues like the lack of educational opportunities in Balochistan.
No postgraduate arts programme in Balochistan
Baloch’s journey as an artist-activist, or an ‘artivist’, reflects the broader challenges young professionals face in the region. She aspires to pursue a Master’s degree in Arts, but the limited educational infrastructure in Balochistan means she will need to relocate to another province to fulfill this dream. This personal challenge mirrors the larger structural issues that many Baloch youth encounter in their pursuit of higher education.
Working at the intersection of art and activism, Hani Baloch represents a new generation of voices using creative expression to document and protest social injustice. Her work serves not only as artistic documentation but as a powerful testimony to ongoing human rights concerns in Balochistan.
A tool to suppress dissent
According to international and national human rights organisations, the state uses enforced disappearances as a tool to suppress dissent. In Balochistan, the practice of forced disappearances dates to the 1970s.
However, since the early 2000s, enforced disappearances and alleged extrajudicial killings have become a vital tool of the state’s counterinsurgency policy in Balochistan. During these decades, the victims’ families have sometimes received sympathy but never justice. The state policy toward the problem of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings has remained one of inaction, but its stance on the issue switches between denial and justification.
Lapsed bill on enforced disappearance
In 2021, Pakistan’s National Assembly passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2021 aimed at criminalising enforced disappearance in Pakistan. The bill was passed by the Senate on October 20, 2022, with some amendments. According to parliamentary procedure, the amended bill passed by the Senate was returned to the originating House, i.e. the National Assembly which had to pass it again for it to become an act of parliament. However, the bill lapsed after the completion of Parliament’s tenure in 2023.
UN asks Pakistan to ratify Convention on enforced disappearances
In August, The United Nations asked Pakistan to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and allocate adequate human, technical, and financial resources for developing, adopting and implementing measures to prevent and end enforced disappearances among ethnic minorities groups and ensure their safety and security.