To better understand how poverty and people's basic needs can become tools for maintaining power, we must first consider the responsibilities of governments towards their citizens.
One of the fundamental responsibilities of governments is to respect people's economic and social rights and ensure equitable access to education, healthcare, employment opportunities and public services.
Access to these resources should not depend on personal connections with influential individuals or political loyalty. Education, healthcare and fair access to public services are people's rights, not favours granted by those in power.
However, under repressive governments, access to employment, economic resources and essential services may be controlled by networks closely connected to those in power. In such circumstances, something that should be a citizen's right becomes a privilege that can only be obtained by gaining the approval of influential individuals.
When a government or its affiliated networks make access to these resources conditional on political support or cooperation, they can exploit people's basic needs to create dependency and control their behaviour.
To better understand this issue, let me give a hypothetical example.
Imagine a young man living in a disadvantaged region. He wants to work and build a future for himself, but employment opportunities are extremely limited. His father is ill, his family has no stable income, and despite his efforts, he has been unable to find a job.
Under these circumstances, someone connected to a powerful institution offers him employment. At first, the offer appears to be simply an opportunity to support his family. But after some time, he is asked to gather information about others, participate in intimidating people, or support actions that violate the rights of others.
The young man now finds himself in a difficult position. On the one hand, his family depends on his income. On the other, complying with these demands could cause harm to other people.
Refusing may mean losing his only source of income. On the surface, he appears to have a choice, but poverty and economic dependency have severely limited his ability to make a genuinely free decision.
This issue becomes particularly significant in regions that have experienced poverty, unemployment, discrimination and inadequate public services for many years.
In parts of Balochistan, economic deprivation, limited employment opportunities and unequal access to public services have affected the lives of many families.
When economic opportunities are scarce and access to resources and essential services is controlled by influential individuals or institutions, some people may become dependent on them to meet their basic needs.
If that dependency is made conditional on political support, gathering information about others or participating in repressive activities, poverty and deprivation become tools for maintaining power.
To establish that such abuses have occurred in specific cases, we must rely on evidence and accounts that can be examined and verified.
At the same time, we should not treat people who are pressured into cooperation to support their families or protect themselves from threats in the same way as those who freely and deliberately participate in repression for personal gain.
Ordinary people are not responsible for creating poverty, discrimination or unequal structures. The primary responsibility for repression lies with those who design, order or carry it out.
Of course, this does not mean ignoring the harm that individuals may cause to others through their cooperation. Rather, we must take the harm seriously while also considering the circumstances and degree of freedom individuals had when assessing their actions.
However, not all cooperation results from poverty, need or coercion.
There is another group of people who, despite having greater resources and freedom of choice, deliberately align themselves with repressive structures to gain wealth, positions of authority and influence.