Balochistan
Living with Nothing
A series of security operations have punctuated Balochistan’s amalgamation as Pakistan’s fourth province — with the first in 1948, then across the 1960s and 1970s, and the last in 2002, to suppress insurgencies against state control of territory and resources. Bar the occasional lull over the years, such troubles have resurfaced without fail, triggering a harsh response from the state to crush insurgencies and activism. Consequently, the province’s relationship with the centre is a complicated one, marked by a deep sense of disaffection flowing from the state’s cavalier attitude to its grievances and concerns over the years.
Given this context, it comes as a surprise that the province’s jails are not crowded, when compared with prisons in the rest of the country. NACTA’s 2018 study on overcrowding in jails reports a total housing capacity of 2,585 prisoners, making Balochistan the only province whose correctional facilities do not suffer from overcrowding. According to the 2021 Federal Ombudsman Report, there were 2,526 prisoners spread across 11 prisons in Balochistan
“If anything illustrates and puts into sharp relief Balochistan’s deprivations, both historical and current, it is the state of its prisons.”
– Author Radha Shah
Detention Through Colonial and Post-Colonial Times
Two areas of concern around imperial expenditure in Balochistan stand out: the transformation of the province into a territory for expanding British military presence to control the borders with Afghanistan and Iran; and the maintenance of ‘law and order’ under the British as the new self-proclaimed rulers of various tribal groups.
Crowding aside, other problems persist, speaking volumes of the levels of under-resourcing and disenfranchisement in the province. The PPAC report notes that Central Prison Loralai, District Prison Killa Saifullah, District Prison Gwadar and District Prison Harnai, are all in such dire need of reconstructive improvement that they “are currently simply not liveable.”
In comparison with Punjab where 10% of prisons do not have ambulances, the PPAC Commission reported that Balochistan only has four prison ambulances for the whole province. Such under-resourcing extends to prisoners being unable to avail legal aid, and most jails do not provide vocational training opportunities. While there are over 100 identified mental health patients in prisons in the province, there are no specialists to attend to their needs. Underscoring this lack of material resources is a lack of opportunities for professional development of prison officials. Reportedly, the least developed of all sectors in the province, PPAC tabulated that 70% of the prison staff were untrained. Training centres do not exist in the province, and instead, prison officials must be sent to the National Academy for Prisons Administration in Lahore.
- Under the British Crown Rule
Examining the administrative reports of the Balochistan Agency in the late 1800s reveals how British governors institutionalised the tribunal jirgas to mete out retributive and communal forms of justice.
The jirgas employed methods such as the payment of blood money, or the stripping of resources from the assailant’s household, which were distinct from the criminal reform mandate employed by the Crown in Punjab and Sindh, and even dissimilar from the federally administered tribal regions with which it shared a border.
- The Present
Today, Balochistan’s prisons remain the most under-resourced in the country, while activists agitating for enfranchisement say they are criminalised as seditious and subject to extrajudicial violence.
Author’s Voice-Notes
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Stories of Incarceration
Into the Void
Feroze offered insight into Balochistan’s prison conditions. Most telling are his words on the emotional emptiness in jails, which are symbolically representative of the lack of facilities in Balochistan prisons and point to how disenfranchisement shapes carceral experiences in the province.
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Courting Crime Out of Desperation
Qadir, the sole earner for his family living in a wooden shack, fits the profile of an impoverished prisoner. Lack of education and employment drove him to a life of crime. In his story, we hear of hopelessness from both outside and behind bars – another framework for understanding Balochistan.
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A Student Activist Disappears
Nadeem was abducted and detained in secret internment on two occasions. Never provided a reason nor formally arrested and charged, his story is an example of how the deep state operates underneath a stunted civilian infrastructure.
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Balochistan Statistics 2023
Prison Population Trend
0
*
as of Nov 2023 statistics
Operating Rate
0
%
of it’s authorized capacity
Under Trial Prisoners
0
%
of all the prisoners are
under trial in only Balochistan
Prison Population in Balochistan
0
%
of the total prison
population in pakistan
population in pakistan