Timeline of former prime ministers arrested in Pakistan

Pakistan has a long history of incarcerating individuals who have held the country's top executive office.

Areesha Rehan Published August 6, 2023

Former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan was arrested by Punjab police on Saturday afternoon from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore. The arrest came shortly after an Islamabad trial court declared him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana case.

This is the second time that the former premier has been arrested in just under three months. Earlier on May 9, Imran was detained in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

But Imran isn’t the first former premier to be arrested or to even face legal charges. Pakistan has a long history of incarcerating individuals who have held the country’s top executive office.

Here, Dawn.com presents a timeline of former prime ministers of Pakistan who at one point or another spent time in custody.

1960s

Jan 1962: Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was the fifth prime minister of Pakistan (Sept 1956-Oct 1957). He refused to endorse Gen Ayub Khan’s seizure of government. Through the Elective Bodies Disqualification Order (Ebdo), he was banned from politics and was later accused of violating the Ebdo in July 1960. In Jan 1962, he was arrested and put in solitary confinement in the Central Jail of Karachi without trial on concocted charges of “anti-state activities” under the 1952 Security of Pakistan Act.

News of Suhrawardy’s arrest in Dawn newspaper on Jan 31, 1962

1970s

Sept 1977: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto served as the prime minister from Aug 1973 to July 1977. In Sept 1977, he was arrested for conspiring to murder a political opponent in 1974.

News of Bhutto’s arrest published in Dawn on Sept 4, 1977

He was released by Lahore High Court Justice Khwaja Mohammad Ahmad Samdani who stated that his arrest had no legal grounds, but was arrested again three days later under Martial Law Regulation 12. The regulation empowered law enforcement agencies to arrest a person who was working against security, law and order, or the smooth running of martial law. This law could not be challenged in any court of law.

Bhutto was eventually sentenced to death and executed on April 4, 1979.

1980s

Aug 1985: Benazir Bhutto served as Pakistan’s prime minister twice (Dec 1998-Aug 1990 and Oct 1993-Nov 1996). Under Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship (1977-1988), Benazir served as an opposition leader. She arrived in Pakistan in Aug 1985 for her brother’s funeral and was put under house arrest for 90 days.

Reasons for Benazir’s arrest cited by sources in Dawn on Aug 30, 1985

Aug 1986: Benazir Bhutto was arrested for denouncing the government at a rally in Karachi on Independence Day.

1990s

May 1998: The Ehtesab Bench of the Lahore High Court issued bailable arrest warrants for Benazir Bhutto.

June 1998: The Public Accounts Committee issued an arrest warrant against Benazir Bhutto.

July 1998: The Ehtesab Bench issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Benazir Bhutto.

Arrest warrants for Benazir Bhutto issued in June and July 1985. — Source: Dawn

April 1999: Benazir Bhutto was sentenced to five years and disqualified from holding public office by the Ehtesab Bench on charges of taking kickbacks from a Swiss company hired to fight customs fraud. She was not in the country at the time of the verdict and the conviction was later overturned by a higher court.

Oct 1999: The Ehtesab Bench re-issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Benazir Bhutto due to her non-appearance before the court in the assets reference case.

Arrest warrants issued against Benazir Bhutto in April and October 1999. — Source: Dawn

2000s

Sept 2007: Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan after being cast into exile by Gen Pervez Musharraf in 1999. On his return to Islamabad, the airport was sealed and Nawaz was arrested within hours of his return and sent to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to complete the three remaining years of his 10-year exile.

News about Nawaz Sharif’s arrest and exile in Dawn on Sept 10, 2007

Nov 2007: Benazir was put under house arrest for a week in Punjab at PPP Senator Latif Khosa’s house to prevent her from leading a long march against Gen Musharraf’s dictatorial government.

A news clip of Benazir Bhutto’s house arrest published in Dawn on Nov 12, 2007

2010s

July 2018: Nawaz was arrested and given a 10-year sentence for corruption by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz. He was released two months later when the court suspended the sentences to wait for a final judgement by the high court.

Dec 2018: Nawaz was jailed again and given a seven-year sentence in relation to his family’s ownership of steel mills in Saudi Arabia. In November 2019, he was allowed to leave the country to receive medical treatment. He has since not returned to Pakistan.

July 2019: PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi served as the prime minister of Pakistan from January 2017-May 2018. On July 19, he was arrested by a 12-member NAB team for alleged corruption while awarding a multi-billion rupee import contract for LNG in 2013 when he was the minister for petroleum and natural resources. He was granted bail and released from Adiala Jail on Feb 27, 2020.

2020s

Sept 2020: The current prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, was arrested on Sept 28 after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail in a NAB money laundering case. He was released from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat central jail nearly seven months later.

March 2023: Two separate arrest warrants were issued for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan after he skipped proceedings in cases pertaining to alleged threats issued to a judge and the Toshakhana gifts. Party supporters had gathered outside Khan’s residence in Zaman Park to prevent his arrest. The standoff resulted in violence with security personnel firing tear gas shells at protestors.

May 2023: Imran Khan was arrested from the premises of the Islamabad High Court on May 9 on corruption charges in a case related to the Al Qadir University Trust. He was subsequently released two days later, with the Supreme Court declaring his arrest “invalid and unlawful”.

Rangers personnel leading Imran Khan to their vehicle after detaining him from the IHC premises. — Screengrab/ File

August 2023: Almost three months after his arrest and subsequent release in the Al Qadir Trust case, the former premier was arrested by Punjab police from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore.

Announcing its verdict, the court sentenced Imran — who was absent from court — to three years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on him for concealing details of Toshakhana gifts. His lawyers were also not present.

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This article was originally published on May 9, 2023, and has been updated to reflect the latest developments.

COLLECTIBLE WATCHES

Pakistan: Imran Khan sentenced to 3 years for corruption

The former prime minister of Pakistan has been found guilty in a case involving state gifts and has been handed a three-year jail term. Khan has maintained he is innocent of the charges brought against him.

Khan urged his supporters "to remain peaceful, steadfast and strong" in a video released after the verdict

Mohsin Raza/REUTERS

A court in Pakistan has found former Prime Minister Imran Khan guilty of graft and has sentenced him to three years in prison, according to state TV.

"His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt," judge Humayun Dilawar wrote in his ruling. "He has been found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from national exchequer willfully and intentionally."

The court found him guilty of selling and lying about receiving state gifts worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000, €576,000), during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Khan's lawyer Intazar Hussain told the Reuters news agency that he had been arrested and taken from his residence in the eastern city of Lahore.

Following his detention, Khan urged his supporters "to remain peaceful, steadfast and strong," in an address that was pre-recorded as he "expected" to be arrested.

Hopes of return to helm hanging by a thread

The conviction could end Khan's chances of standing in national elections that are due to be held later this year.

The cricketer-turned-politician has denied the charges.

Last month Khan predicted his opponents would imprison him eventually, saying "sooner or later they will put me in jail," adding that he welcomed fresh elections, but wondered whether his party would be allowed to contest them.

Imran Khan: 'Sooner or later they will put me in jail'  26:06

 

'Biased decision,' says PTI

"This is a biased decision by the court and the decision is the worst example of political revenge and engineering," PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan told DW's Islamabad correspondent Haroon Janjua. "It has been challenged in the Supreme Court. Through this case, another black mark was placed on the forehead of the justice system of Pakistan."

"The nation will never accept such a conspiracy and revenge attempt against the most popular and reliable political leader of the country," Hasan added.

Pakistani Minister of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Marri, hit back, telling DW, "We have never desired for our political opponents to be victimized but law must be the same for all. If he thinks he’s innocent he can take the legal course."

Marri added that Khan had been "defying legal procedures, not appearing before legal forums and building a falsehood to hide from legal consequences of his actions."

Earlier on Saturday, in a statement, Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said it had already filed an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.

More than 150 cases have been filed against Khan since a no-confidence vote ousted him in April last year.

Khan's legal team said: "It's important to mention there was no chance given to present witnesses, neither was time allotted to round up arguments."

DW
mfa, jsi/sms (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)

No surprises

Editorial 

Published in Dawn, 

August 6th, 2023

PAKISTAN’S twisted political saga continues without the slightest deviation from a tired and predictable script. PTI chairman Imran Khan has been found guilty of “corrupt practices”, disqualified from representing the people of Pakistan, fined Rs100,000, and sentenced to three years in jail for good measure.

If Mr Khan’s actual ‘crime’ seems irrelevant and of little moral significance, it is because former prime ministers Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy faced similar treatment at the hands of the state; none of the charges levelled against them withstood the test of time.

Indeed, considering the frivolity of the charge and severity of Mr Khan’s punishment, one need not reach too far back in history to find a parallel. Where Mr Sharif’s political dreams were cut short over an unreceived salary, Mr Khan’s political career has been rudely interrupted over failing to properly declare certain gifts he received as prime minister. In neither case, can the severity of the punishment be said to have fitted the ‘crime’.

There is no denying that Mr Khan blundered by not complying with the ECP’s asset declaration rules as strictly as he should have. However, months of reporting on Toshakhana records have since established that very few of those who received gifts in an official capacity may be able to pass similar scrutiny if their records were to be examined with the same vigour.

Given that context, for the court to hand Mr Khan the maximum possible sentence for the offence he was charged with seems excessive. The punishment is all the more problematic after the concerns raised by several observers over the manner in which the trial was conducted and the seeming haste with which the judgement was issued. Of course, Mr Khan is entitled to appeal the sentence, and he may earn a reprieve, but the intended damage may have been done by then.

It must be asked why our state periodically subjects popular leaders to such humiliation when it routinely ignores far more serious crimes. This is, after all, the same country where a clear constitutional edict to hold elections within a specified time frame was wilfully cast aside earlier this year, and there still haven’t been any consequences for the actors involved in the farce.

The fact is that Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto were not, and Imran Khan will not be rendered irrelevant to Pakistanis over some technical knockout. The fate of a politician rests in the hands of their constituency, and no amount of external interference can change this simple relationship. The experiment was tried in the earlier two cases and failed, and the state seems to be repeating the same mistake, only to weaken a fraying social contract further.

‘Murder of justice’: Lawyers weigh in on ‘hasty’ verdict against Imran Khan

"This is not the first time a politician has been ousted by the courts. Past injustices do not justify continued injustice."

Dawn.com

Published August 5, 2023 

After a few weeks of speculation as to when it would happen, former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan was arrested for the second time in three months from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore today. The arrest was made by the Punjab police following an Islamabad trial court’s verdict in the Toshakhana case, declaring the former premier guilty of “corrupt practices”.

Announcing its verdict, the trial court sentenced Imran to three years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on him for concealing details of Toshakhana gifts under Section 174 of the Election Act. The PTI chief was not present when the verdict was announced by the trial court.

Dawn.com reached out to members of the legal fraternity to weigh in on the conviction and subsequent arrest.

Unfair, unjust

Lawyer Rida Hosain termed the trial unjust. “Article 10A of the Constitution guarantees an absolute and unqualified right to a fair trial and due process. The right to a fair trial includes an opportunity to defend the case against you, an adequate opportunity to prepare the defence, a right to a hearing, an independent and impartial judge etc. The fairness of the process is fundamental — it prevents arbitrary excesses and provides certain minimum safeguards. Justice must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done.”

Hosain added, however, that Section 366(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure states that a judgment shall not be deemed to be invalid ‘by reason only of the absence of any party or his pleader on the day.’

“The fact that the verdict was announced in the absence of Imran Khan in and of itself is not enough to declare the conviction invalid,” she said.

Having said that, the manner in which the Toshakhana case was conducted raises serious questions on the fairness of the trial, said Hosain.

“There is a right to appeal against this decision. An appellate court would need to determine whether a conviction, which was reserved without hearing the final arguments of the defence counsel, and without hearing defence witnesses, can hold the field. On the face of it, it is unjust.”

Commenting on the legal implications of the verdict, Hosain explained: “Under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution, an individual with a criminal conviction for an offence involving moral turpitude (carrying a sentence of at least two years) is subject to disqualification for five years after release. The courts have held that ‘moral turpitude’ includes delinquent conduct involving misrepresentation, dishonesty, misappropriation, forgery, cheating etc. If Imran Khan’s conviction stands, he cannot be a member of parliament for five years after release.

“This is not the first time a politician has been ousted by the courts. Past injustices do not justify continued injustice.”

‘Convenient tool’

Referring to Imran’s potential disqualification from holding public office following his conviction, lawyer Hassan A Niazi termed Pakistan’s disqualification laws “convenient tools to get rid of troublesome politicians at the behest of the unelected.” He argued that this case, like those that came before it, has little to do with corrupt practices.

“In the 90s, we had the Constitution’s dissolution provisions that were used to pull down political opponents.

“Now we have disqualification laws backed by incomprehensible Supreme Court judgments and enabled by the establishment.”

A hasty judgement

On whether the judgement would stand, given how it was announced in the absence of the accused, lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii said: “While it is the duty of the accused to present themselves in court and not the court’s duty to wait upon their arrival, the verdict is ridiculous for a whole host of other reasons.

“Technically the court should have ensured the presence of the accused, by use of force if necessary, and then announced the verdict. This method used today speaks to the extraordinary haste with which these proceedings have been conducted.

“A decision on the merits cannot be given without the accused being present, even though they can be declared fugitives or proclaimed offenders. The court cannot then proceed to adjudicate the merits of a criminal case and must declare the accused a proclaimed offender and then a decision on this offence is rendered.

“As a result of today’s decision, not only is Imran Khan convicted for three years, he is also disqualified for the relevant five-year period.”

‘Politically motivated case’

For lawyer Muhammad Ahmad Pansota, “the mode and manner in which the judgement has been rendered reeks of vengeance, mala fide and a politically motivated case”.

“The judgement is wrong on many grounds,” he said. “Article 10A of the Constitution mandates that a fair trial and due process must be accorded to the accused, which doesn’t seem to have happened in this case.”

Referring to the Islamabad High Court judgement, which had a day earlier ordered the trial court to decide the matter again after re-hearing the case, Pansota termed it quite a difficult judgement to understand, “but even if we take it on face value, it [IHC] had asked the concerned judge to first decide the jurisdiction”.

He added, however, that the judgement had been rendered by the trial court on the same day. “In my view, time should have been given to the accused to produce his defence because a criminal trial without defence kills the very idea of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

“So in my view, the judgement, once challenged, will be struck down or at least suspended, to say the least. Even otherwise, any conviction which is five years or less is usually suspended on the very first day of hearing, so let’s see what happens.”

Lawyer Mirza Moiz Baig echoed Pansota’s thoughts. “The decision against Imran perhaps gives short shrift to the accused’s right to due process and procedural fairness,” he said.

“Earlier, the high court had directed the trial court to decide the question of maintainability on merit and then render a final decision on the merits of the allegations against Imran,” Baig explained. “Nonetheless, the fact is that the trial court disregarded the binding directions passed by the high court by failing to decide the question of maintainability and dismissing the accused’s application in this respect merely on account of his absence.

“Given our history of disqualifying elected representatives for extraneous reasons, it won’t be surprising if this decision too crumbles when challenged before the high courts once there’s a shift in the politics that underpins this decision.”

The irony

Lawyer Ayman Zafar pointed out the irony in the situation, saying when Imran Khan was arrested for the first time on May 9, he had already surrendered himself to the court, while his arrest today came in light of a verdict rendered during his absence from court.

“The pertinent question now arises as to the standing of this verdict and its potential implications on Imran’s eligibility for public office.

The legal process allows Imran the opportunity to avail himself of the right to appeal before both the high court as well as the honourable Supreme Court in light of today’s proceedings. This avenue of recourse is akin to the approach undertaken by the Sharif family in the Avenfield case.“

According to Ayman, “choosing not to argue the case, and allowing it to be condemned unheard was likely to result in an unfavourable decision against Imran. However, the underlying ground remains alive and preserved, should it need to be raised again in the future.

“It is possible that this decision was a strategic choice made by Imran’s legal counsel, in order to be able to raise the same legal grounds in the future. While this verdict also means that Imran will not be able to take part in elections due before the end of the year, the predicament that the nation faces yet again is the political instability that arises, whereby the nation finds itself in a precarious situation with unpredictable outcomes and further challenges for the people of Pakistan to endure.”

Zafar added, however, that the “events of May 9 have shown loud and clear that the people of Pakistan possess a voice that cannot be silenced and the country’s survival is intricately tied to its people.

“As of now, Imran’s future in politics remains uncertain due to the recent legal developments surrounding his arrest and potential disqualification.

“The impartiality of the judiciary is paramount to ensure a fair and just outcome for all stakeholders. The ultimate outcome will largely depend on the legal proceedings and the rulings of the higher courts. As events unfold, the nation’s focus will be on the pursuit of a fair and just resolution that upholds democratic values and serves the best interests of the people of Pakistan.”



Imran arrested after Islamabad court finds him guilty of ‘corrupt practices’ in Toshakhana case

Politik-tok: The infamous watches of Toshakhana

Imran Khan arrested from IHC; court deems ex-PM’s arrest legal

SOCIETY: THE RISE OF BALOCH WOMEN VLOGGERS

Somaiyah Hafeez 

Published August 6, 2023 

Tilyan Aslam started vlogging during her exchange year in the US

It took Anita Jalil months to convince her father to allow her to start vlogging [video blogging] on YouTube. Eventually, her father agreed — marking the beginning of Jalil’s journey to become Balochistan’s first female vlogger.

Hailing from Gwadar, Anita struggled with vlogging at first, as the idea of women having a public presence or talking about their everyday lives on social media was an alien concept in her environment. In the initial days, Anita’s father would sit by her side when she edited her vlogs and ask her to edit out shots he didn’t like — such as shots of her clothes or make-up.

In her vlogs, Anita covered various programmes happening in Gwadar for her channel, talked about her daily life and raised issues, such as those of electricity and water in Gwadar, a city termed as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC’s) ‘crown jewel’.

Slowly, Anita garnered an audience and her work started getting noticed outside of Gwadar. A team from BBC Urdu travelled to Gwadar to do a story on her, titled ‘Balochistan Ki YouTube Star Anita Ko Lakhon Loag Kyun Follow Kartay Hain? [Why Do So Many People Follow Balochistan’s YouTube Star Anita?]’, after which she was invited to various morning shows on television.

In conservative Baloch society, the idea of Baloch women placing themselves in the public eye is sometimes unthinkable. But more and more young vloggers are asserting themselves on social media and changing mores in the process…

“My father started realising that I was doing good and, now, he is one of my greatest supporters,” Anita says. However, she tread a difficult path, paved with trolling and abuse — both online and offline.

“I still remember that once a male relative told me that, ‘You have ruined our family name, we have never seen a Baloch woman show herself and her life on YouTube, you should remove our family’s name and remove your Baloch identity too’,” she recalls. “There were 15 to 17 male family members in the room. What hurt me more than the remark itself was that my father didn’t take a stand for me then, but he supports me now.”

TROLLING AND HONOUR

Sanj Baloch, a daily vlogger from Karachi | Photos by the writer

Hostility came not only from her family. Anita says she received negative comments and was trolled online, which took a mental toll on her.

“I had to be on sleeping pills because I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep thinking about the negative comments I was getting,” she recounts. “I developed anxiety — in the beginning I received many life threats. During the nights, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep in the fear that someone might enter my home and murder me.”

Five years since starting her journey, Anita still receives hateful comments online but the fact that many opportunities have come her way because of her vlogging and knowing she has played a role in bringing about a change, makes her content.

Like many societies in South Asia, Baloch families too place the burden of upholding their ‘honour’ on women. Females who post their pictures online or have an active and public social media profile are often treated as having breached the ‘righteous’ social code.

For this reason, Tilyan Aslam, who hails from Turbat and who started vlogging in 2019 while she was on an exchange programme in the USA, thinks such Baloch women are ‘rebels.’

Tilyan started posting vlogs on her channel to share her experiences with other girls back home and kept an active presence on Instagram and Twitter — talking about various topics, such as mental health and self-love. As a university-going student, she no longer finds the time to vlog but remains active on other platforms.

“When you start doing something new, people generally pour hate and want you to do everything as per their wishes,” she remarks, explaining why she had to take a break from social media.

“They start pointing out flaws in everything. Comments like, ‘You’re not wearing a Baloch dress’, ‘You’re not speaking in Balochi’ or ‘You haven’t covered this and that topic’. People have fat-shamed me or commented on my facial structure or been rude. Sometimes I open Instagram to character-assassinating comments that lower my confidence.”

Tilyan says that while her parents are supportive, her extended family — that is, her aunts, uncles and cousins — didn’t give a positive response to her online presence.

“I have stopped going to family gatherings because of the amount of hatred and negativity that I get,” she says. Because of the taunts, her parents have sometimes indirectly advised her to reduce her social media activity.

Despite the challenges, ranging from family disapproval, facing discomfort in male-dominated public areas and receiving backlash online, more and more Baloch females have, in fact, taken up their cameras to start vlogging and maintain an active online presence.

NEVER QUITE RIGHT

Anita Jalil, the first female vlogger from Balochistan

Yasmin Ghani, a final year student at University of Turbat, is the first vlogger from Turbat. Ghani is also the youngest Radio Jockey (RJ) from her city.

Belonging to a conservative community, where women are generally confined to the chaadar and chaardiwari, ie away from the public eye, means young women like Yasmin have to be conscious of what they put out as content creators.

“When I started making videos and uploading them in 2018, I received a lot of criticism, which made me wonder what I should be doing to change this,” says Ghani. She started to appear in traditional Baloch dresses, covering her head with a scarf and speaking in Balochi in her videos, in attempts to placate her audience.

“I had some content in mind that I couldn’t produce because I knew the society I belong from won’t accept it,” she laments. “Even though my language is not understood worldwide or nationwide, I would speak in Balochi in my videos to gain acceptance. I made vlogs in Urdu in the beginning, but I was criticised for that.”

In her videos, she has covered many events in Turbat, interviewed many emerging Baloch artists and touched upon various topics.

“Some remarks left me scared too,” says Yasmin. “I would be told that, in the society I live in, women are killed in the name of honour. I continued for the sake of bringing about a change — I thought that if I stop, then my society would remain stagnant.”

The idea of a female from Baloch society uploading her pictures is a radical one, even in the 21st century, so when this happens, the pictures are often reposted, used in reels or uploaded elsewhere without seeking permission.

WITHOUT PERMISSIONS

Tilyan Aslam says that she has tried to educate people on this matter — telling them it is not only unethical but a cybercrime too. “People are never ready to listen, and this is one of the main reasons why Baloch girls don’t use social media — there is the fear that their pictures will be used without consent and not everyone has supportive families.”

“Stealing content as well as pictures is a very common thing and, if this is pointed out, people respond by saying this is part and parcel of having a public account,” says Sanj Baloch, a vlogger from Karachi who started her YouTube channel two years ago. “They don’t understand the concepts of copyright or consent or the effort that goes behind making the content.”

Sanj vlogs with a mask and keeps her face covered and, yet, she too has been on the receiving end of hateful comments online. Many fake accounts of hers have been made on Facebook and TikTok.

“Someone once shared a fake account which had a lot of followers and I posted this on my Instagram to inform my audience it wasn’t me,” she says. “People started telling me that this person was talking to them on Facebook impersonating me.”

Over time, many women from Baloch society have started fighting these outdated social norms by starting their YouTube channels and creating public accounts on social media, where they voice their opinions and share content.

When Anita started out, she was the only Baloch female vlogger. But this has changed — there are many Baloch female vloggers on YouTube now, from Balochistan as well as the Baloch diaspora living abroad, showing various aspects of Baloch society, and they receive positive and encouraging comments as well.

Even if one frame at a time, things are surely changing.

The author is a freelance feature writer. She tweets @sommulbaloch

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 6th, 2023

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCH 

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PAKISTAN

Rapacious mining
Editorial 

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2023

STRIP the land, plunder the mountains, until all that remains is not even a shadow of a bygone time. That seems to be the approach of the Sindh government in its heedless pursuit of material gain. Its willingness to barter away the province’s glorious natural resources and its heritage puts Sindh’s past as well as its future in peril. The magnificent Karoonjhar mountain range of Nagarparkar in the Tharparkar district, from whose heights rainwater flows down into more than 20 streams in the monsoon season, is of environmental as well as cultural significance. Thankfully, the Sindh High Court, acting on a public interest petition, stepped in after the provincial government last month decided to call for tenders for extracting granite from these hills. This was part of the auction the Sindh government was planning to hold on Aug 4 for small-scale mining permits for lake salt, china clay, marble, gravel, sand and limestone across the province. On Tuesday, the court passed a restraining order till Aug 15 preventing the Mines and Minerals Development Department from undertaking any stone-cutting activities in the Karoonjhar range.

The rich stores of granite in these hills have drawn predatory attention since many years: the first contract for cutting stone here was issued during the Zia regime. In 2008, the PPP government gave the area on a 20-year lease to a private company. The court has now and then intervened to stop the stone-cutting operations here. However, despite protests by activists and locals, illegal quarrying has continued virtually unabated, changing the topography and gutting the history intrinsic to this landscape of ancient holy sites. One hopes the court will once again impose a ban on mining in the Karoonjhar range. But already there are allegations that the SHC’s stay order is being flouted. When the supposed guardians of this land are themselves profiting from its unsustainable exploitation, only continued public pressure will stay their hand.