Mar 5
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
SDPI Seminar Hall, 38 Embassy Road, G-6/3, Islamabad
Speakers:
- Mama Qadeer Balouch, Leader , Voice of Balouch Missing Persons (VBMP)
- Ms Farzana Balouch, Marcher, Voice of Balouch Missing Persons (VBMP)
- Mr Haris Khalique, Human Right Actvist
- Ms Nusrat Zehra, Social Activist, Recite a Poem for Balouch Missing Person
Moderator:
- Ms Anbreen Ajaib, Senior Specialist- Gender, Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO)
(Concept Note)
Voice against forced disappearance of Balouch persons is not new. Statistics of missing persons shared by Balouch community vary from those by government departments however there has been an agreement on the fact that a number of Balouch persons are missing and the number is increasing every day. Despite of Supreme Court’s orders to discover the missing persons only few persons could be discovered either alive or dead.
Voice of Balouch Missing Persons (VBMP) is an organization working on raising voice against Balouch persons being abducted and has been calling the State to take actions against this abduction. All they claim is to present the missing persons in front of court and punish them as per law if proved guilty after trial. Regardless of all these efforts Balouch persons are still being abducted and killed every day. As a step to advocate for their rights VBMP decided to do a long march from Quetta to Islamabad to call upon government and UN for quick action to release the missing persons of Baluchistan. The march started from Quetta on October 27, 2013. The first phase, a 730 kilometer walk, ended in Karachi with a demonstration in front of the Press Club on November 23. The second phase began in mid-December and reached Islamabad on Friday 28th February 2014.
The marchers witnessed a mix of experiences during this longest march in the recent history of Pakistan. Least coverage of the march in print and electronic media, lack of cooperation from security departments (including threatening calls especially in Punjab) has proved the non seriousness of State to resolve the issue of missing persons in a peaceful manner.
Civil Society of Islamabad has been closely monitoring the support or threats received by the marchers and raised its voice for ensuring support and security to the Balouch marchers. Civil society believes that the marchers need to be heard by the relevant authorities and their issue needs to be resolved as per law of land.
In order to make voice of Balouch marchers heard, civil society under the umbrella of IHI is holding a seminar in which Balouch marchers will talk about their issues and will demand civil society to join hand in their struggle of raising voices against abduction of Balouchs.
The event can also be watched live at http://www.sdpi.tv/live.php