Comment: PM’s communication with Baloch leaders

By Siddiq Baluch

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, had an hour long meeting with the elderly Baloch leader, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, at his Karachi residence discussing issues of political importance.

Earlier, the President, Mir Asif Ali Zardari, had an interaction with the Baloch intellectuals soon after he was elected as President of Pakistan. Both the leaders expressed their desire that they wanted an amicable solution to all the Baloch issues.

It remained the spirit of the Government leaders from day one. The Government had announced a number of steps in different directions addressing the issues of Provincial or regional autonomy, the NFC Award ensuring a fair share in resources for Balochistan, Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan and many other administrative measures providing relief to the people in this Province.

After the meeting with Sardar Ataullah Mengal, the first ever democratically elected Chief Minister of Balochistan, the Prime Minister had made certain observations and also sought the help of the elderly Baloch leaders to bring the situation in Balochistan back to normal.

At present, Sardar Ataullah Mengal is the patron-in-chief of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) the single largest political party of Balochistan enjoying mass support of the people at this critical juncture. His son Akhtar Mengal is leading the BNP. Sardar Mengal and his sons suffered at lot during the Baloch struggle for national rights and the sacrifices had no match in the recent political history. The party had been holding huge public gatherings in all parts of Balochistan confirming that it is popular in all parts of this province.

Sardar Ataullah Mengal was first elected as Member of the West Pakistan Assembly in 1950s prior to Ayub Khan’s Martial Law. Later on, he was elected as a Member of the National Assembly in 1962. He was elected member of the Balochistan Assembly in 1970 elections on the ticket of the defunct National Awami Party (NAP). He was later elected as Leader of the House and thus became the first ever elected Chief Minister of Balochistan. His Government enjoyed two/third majority in the House when late ZAB dismissed his Government unceremoniously.

He was arrested by Field Marshal Ayub Khan and implicated in a treason case along with Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, Nawab Akbar Bugti and late Nawab Nauroz Khan. He remained in jail for many years and never compromised on the Baloch rights in his entire life.

Thus, Sardar Ataullah Mengal had a big say in the Baloch politics and had a huge political following having no parallel among his comptemporaries. His BNP, in recent years, held massive rallies attracting tens of thousands of people in all the major population centres of Balochistan confirming the populist nature of the party with such a mass support. It will be unfair to compare his popularity with others having different opinion on many issues.

During the 1997 general elections, BNP emerged as the single largest party in the Balochistan Assembly and consequently formed the Provincial Government under the leadership of Sardar Akhtar Mengal. After 18 months, more than a dozen Ministers of his party were encouraged to defect the party and elect a new Leader of the House from Muslim League. It was done during the PML rule under Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif.

Thus the party was unfairly treated by the people from the real corridors of power.

Nawab Bugti was victimized since he was dislodged from power in 1990 and Sardar Akhtar Mengal since his Government was overthrown in 1998. Thus both the nationalist parties were pushed to the corners to fight back the Pakistani establishment.

Former military dictator and Iron Man General Pervez Musharraf had his own complexes as he was unaware about the norms of the diverse Pakistani societies. He could not understand why the Baloch leaders are ignoring him, not making request for meetings or presenting demands to him. It was the basic cause of personal annoyance of the tin pot dictator who found no place to stay back in Pakistan after being overthrown from power.

He and his military advisers were responsible for launching a military operation first in Bugti Tribal territory and later on extending it to the Marri Tribal Area and other parts of Balochistan in order to brutally crush the movement for Baloch national rights within the framework of one Pakistan.

Presumably, the Government leaders are unable to reverse back the decisions of the former military dictator and restore peace by releasing all the political opponents taken hostage or prison by the state functionaries.

Pakistan is facing a very grave situation following the spill over of the Afghan Civil War into the Pakistani territory years ago. Security situation around Pakistan is very precarious as most of the neighbours and their patrons had adopted a hostile attitude towards Pakistan. On the hand, Balochistan is highly sensitive and located in a very strategic area where the world powers had deep interest. Petty functionaries should not be allowed to deal with the mega sensitive situation of Balochistan and the Government leaders should assert themselves in a very decisive way before there is any disaster in the region. The only course is left to communicate with the Baloch leaders and woo the populist political parties for seeking political support or pacifying the highly annoyed Baloch youths in other countries or in the Balochistan hills. The Government leaders should prevail on the hawks within the Pakistani establishment for restoring peace in Balochistan in the interest of regional peace and security.