Baloch National Movement urges EU to reconsider economic cooperation with Pakistan
Balochistan [Pakistan], July 14 (ANI): Baloch National Movement (BNM) chairman Naseem Baloch has urged the European Union to immediately reconsider its economic cooperation with Pakistan under the GSP+ scheme, warning that such privileges are being granted at the cost of Baloch lives and dignity.
Speaking on the formation of a dedicated BNM committee to document human rights violations in Balochistan, Baloch said the initiative aims to systematically inform EU institutions about the atrocities being committed daily by the Pakistani state. These include enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, and suppression of political rights, which he said are deliberately concealed through media censorship and military control.
“We believe that providing economic or diplomatic support to Pakistan in such conditions, particularly through trade privileges like GSP+, amounts to indirect support for the ongoing grave human rights violations against the Baloch nation," Baloch said.
According to him, the EU’s trade concessions, which allow Pakistan annual benefits of EUR6-7 billion, are empowering the very military forces involved in what he described as “genocide" in Balochistan. He emphasised that under the terms of the GSP+ agreement, Pakistan is obligated to uphold 27 core international conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Pakistan, he argued, is in flagrant and systematic violation of these requirements.
“Pakistani intelligence agencies abduct students, political workers, journalists, anyone who speaks for Baloch rights," he added. “They are held in torture cells or found in mass graves. This is not governance; this is state terrorism."
Naseem Baloch also highlighted that elections in Balochistan are nothing but theatrical exercises, where the military and ISI handpick representatives, nullifying any semblance of democracy.
“Free journalism is impossible in Balochistan. Those who speak out are silenced, through imprisonment, abduction, or assassination," he said.
He concluded by urging the EU to terminate all economic, political, and military cooperation with Pakistan. “We have consistently informed elected representatives and institutions of the European Union about this grave humanitarian crisis and have appealed to them to hold all Pakistani civil and military officials involved in the Baloch genocide accountable. We demand that the EU reconsider and terminate all forms of political, economic, and military cooperation with the state of Pakistan, which is deeply involved in serious human rights violations," he said. (ANI)
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