Time lists Mahrang Baloch amongst emerging leaders

She emerged as a forceful protester during her childhood

Photo: Al Jazeera

IN a move that serves to highlight human rights challenges confronting Pakistanis, Time magazine has included rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch in its ‘TIME 100 Next 2024’ list, which honours people “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact”.

Dr Baloch was selected by the magazine in recognition of her peaceful advocacy and her march on Islamabad alongside hundreds of women to demand justice for their “missing husbands, sons, and brothers”.

Dr Baloch took to Facebook to express her gratitude to the magazine. “I am deeply honoured and delighted to be named among the top 100 emerging leaders of the world by TIME,” she wrote. “I dedicate this recognition to all Baloch women human rights defenders and families of victims of forcefully disappeared people.”

Dr Baloch first burst onto the scene in late 2009; she was in primary school when her father disappeared. She led protests as a child demanding justice for missing persons. In a famous incident, she burned her schoolbooks at the doorstep of the Quetta Press Club, demanding her father be recovered. Her father’s mutilated body was found in 2011.

It is a remarkable achievement for her to be recognised by Time as a leader of the future despite her troubled past.