There isn’t a single impartial rights organisation of repute [including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan] which hasn’t repeatedly brought out how the people of Balochistan are the hapless victims of institutionalised human rights abuse ranging from abduction to illegal confinement and enforced disappearances to extrajudicial killings by the Pakistan army and paramilitaries, levies and intelligence agencies under its command. Advertisement

The arrest was first announced by foreign media and is yet to be confirmed by Pakistani officials.

Once again, it’s a mixed bag of both good and bad news from Pakistan.

Pakistan is in a cul de sac. Not for the first time in its history, its politics are in tatters. Its debt ridden society is more radicalised than ever. From a being net food exporter, it now imports food. Increasing water scarcity will increase its food insecurity.

How acute is the chronic malaise of unchecked enforced disappearances afflicting Pakistan can be gauged from the fact that at least eight out of the top ten google search results for “land of enforced disappearances,” directly refers to it.

Imran Khan is on the road, and his dedicated fans are determined to follow him to death, or to the next elections.

For years, Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relation [ISPR] had been claiming that it was the unholy nexus between New Delhi and previous regimes in Kabul which was solely responsible for unending spate of terrorist violence within the country.