KARACHI: A seminar at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Sunday marked 16 years since the enforced disappearance of a doctor and political activist, Deen Muhammad Baloch, from the hospital he worked at, the Khuzdar Civil Hospital, on 28 June, 2009.

The touching seminar brought together family members, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders to reflect on the 16 years of absence and the courageous resistance led by Dr Deen’s daughters, Sammi Deen and Mehlab Baloch.

Six-year-old Mehtaab, Sammi and Mehlab’s little cousin, sat on the edge of the stage holding her uncle’s photo. She never knew him but knows that he was someone important, and very much loved and missed by his family.

Sammi and Mehlab were themselves not much older than their cousin when their father was taken from them. Sammi was 10 and Mehlab seven.

According to Mehlab, her father’s disappearance is not the story of one person, it is the story of Balochistan.

Sammi Deen and Mehlab Baloch want to know whereabouts of their father, who was picked up 16 years ago from Khuzdar Civil Hospital

“This is the day when, 16 years ago, I left my schooling and prepared for the fight ahead. Instead of studying from schoolbooks, I used to prepare speeches that I would deliver at protests or think about what to say on social media,” she said.

Sammi Deen said that she has left no stone unturned in trying to find her father during these years. “I have headed protests, I have marched right up to the state’s capital, I have pleaded, knocked on the doors of the courts of law, I have taken beatings, I have been arrested ... there is nothing that I did not do to get my father back. And I regret none of it,” she said.

“It has been 16 years, but I am still standing where I was back then — sad and crying. I am still in pain as I continue my search for my father. I ask the same questions as I hold his photograph close to my heart. Every new day is a hurtful reminder of him not being with us. I still wait, I still hope,” she said.

“But we all have questions, and if the state wants us to not ask questions and shut up, then it should kill us all — because the questions won’t stop. The truth is that we accept the sovereignty of this state. Therefore, we question it,” she added.

“When we hear about any missing person’s safe return, we ask him if he saw Dr Deen Muhammad Baloch anywhere. If anyone reports finding a dead body, with our hearts sinking, we have to go check if it might be him. More agonising questions come to mind. If he is dead, did he get a burial? Or was he just dumped somewhere and eaten by wild animals? Such questions eat me up too. My father was a kind man. A medical doctor, he would go to places to help people where others avoided going — but he had questions,” she said.

Earlier, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asad Iqbal Butt, said that questioning matters that you have issues with is a must. “Otherwise, you cannot move towards solutions,” he said.

“There are some 67 people no one has heard of for years. When HRCP asked the government about them, it made missions and commissions to look into the matter — just as an eyewash,” he said.

“Sixteen years is a long time. Sammi and Mehlab, who were little girls when their father went missing, are grown up now. But they don’t know if they are orphans; their mother doesn’t know if she is a widow. Labelling them as enemies of the land is so wrong, as they only hold protests or organise marches. They respect the law, but the law doesn’t respect them, as they are beaten and manhandled,” he regretted.

Deputy organiser of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, Lala Wahab Baloch, regretted that the issue of missing persons has spread to Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa too. “But the state doesn’t care. The courts here too have been turned into kangaroo courts. Pakistan’s judiciary and Pakistan’s Constitution have been turned into a joke,” he said.

Senior journalist Wusatullah Khan said that Balochistan is the biggest province of Pakistan, loaded with resources but with the smallest population.

“There is so much which could have been done in this richest province in the name of development, but which was not done — thinking that what can these people do if they don’t get what they rightfully deserve? This same policy was followed in 1970 also. Even then it was thought that what could the people of East Pakistan do if, despite winning the elections, power is not transferred to them,” he reminded.

He also wondered why people are secretly abducted instead of being arrested or tried in courts for any wrong they may have done. “The abductees must have something to hide themselves. They do not want it to come out in the open,” he pointed out.

Senior journalist Mazhar Abbas regretted the lack of resolutions passed about missing persons from Balochistan.

“The politicians there step back from the issues at hand after reaching the Assembly. They are all compromised,” he said.

Classical dancer, activist and founder of Tehrik-i-Niswan, Sheema Kermani, performed a tribute to the struggles of the families — especially the women in the families of missing persons — in their search for them.

KPC President Fazil Jamili and Khurram Ali of Karachi Bachao Tehreek also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2025