ISLAMABAD: The family of a detained Pakistani Baloch rights activists, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, filed a petition in Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking to overturn a provincial court ruling that upheld her arrest under public order laws, according to a local media report.

Baloch, a physician and a civil society activists, has been held at Quetta’s Hudda District Jail since March 22 after she participated in protests following a separatist militant attack on a passenger train in Balochistan.

She was arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law, a move her supporters described as part of a broader crackdown on nonviolent dissent in the restive province.

The petition, filed by her sister, argues that the detention is arbitrary and aimed at silencing peaceful activism.

“Nadia Bal­och, the sister of Dr. Mah­­rang Baloch, urged the Supreme Court on Wed­­nesday to set aside the April 15 order of the Balo­ch­istan High Court that rej­ected the plea against her detention under the Main­tenance of Public Order,” the English-language newspaper Dawn quoted from the petition.