Balochistan: Pakistani judicial commission is harassing Baloch and Pashtun women
Mama Qadeer and Farzana Majeed at protest camp
QUETTA: The leader of Pashtun Protection Movement (PPM) Manzoor Pashteen said in an interview that members of Pakistani judicial commission supposedly formed to discover missing persons have harassed and misbehaved with female family members of missing persons.
He said a Pashtun sister informed him that she appeared before the judicial commission to register the case of her abducted husband. ‘First time there was no progress but the second time when I appeared before the commission again. One member of the commission told me, ‘why do you need your husband. You’re beautiful and I am here,’ Manzoor Pashteen quoted a Pashtun woman as saying.
He said that the Pashtun sister told him that she is disappointed with the commission and doesn’t want to go back there again.
Previously there have been similar complaints from Baloch women when they contact the judicial commission about their loved one’s whereabouts. The members of commission harassed them and wasted time in irrelevant talks.
A Baloch woman told BBC that when she appeared before the commission to ask about her brother, ‘Some members of the judicial commission instead of listening to my plea have started praising my Balochi outfit and asked me to have some biscuit.’
The commission members said, ‘Your outfit looks beautiful. Have you stitched it yourself?’
She replied, ‘I am not here to eat your biscuits.’
Such behaviour of the Pakistani judicial commission is tantamount to rubbing salt on the wounds of the families of enforced-disappeared persons.
It is also pertinent to mention that the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons’ chairman Nasrullah Baloch has expressed his dissatisfaction with the judicial commission on several occasions. He said the commission was not serious about finding the disappeared persons from Balochistan.
