Consequences of End of Sardar’s Influence In Baluchistan
By Samuel Baid
In 1972, when he had been made the Chief Martial Law Administrator-cum-President of the just truncated Pakistan by country’s defeated Army, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said the problem of Baluchistan was its Sardars. He was hostile to them because in the December 1970 elections, under their influence, Baluchistan totally rejected his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
The Sardars demanded that their Victorious National Awami Party (NAP) be allowed to form the government in Baluchistan. Bhutto did not like it but since the support of this party was unavoidable for the passage of the under-preparation constitution, he gave in. The NAP had unchallenged position in Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province- NWFP- (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-KPK). So, Bhutto willy-willy allowed NAP government in Baluchistan. However, after the passage and promulgation of the Constitution on August 14, 1973, Bhutto dismissed the NAP government in Baluchistan on charges that it was getting arms from Iraq to attack Pakistan. He ordered military crackdown on the population of Baluchistan and jailed all top NAP leaders including its Chief Khan Abdul Wali Khan. Wali Khan alleged jailed NAP leaders were subjected to slow poisoning.
The Baluch went up the hills with their weapons to fight the bombing Army. A large number of the Baluch fled to Afghanistan where Khair Bux Marri organized military training for NAP Chief Minister in the dismissed provincial government. Ataullah Mengal went away to London to return home after about six months with a vow not to speak Pakistan’s national language Urdu. This Sardar thus, isolated himself from Pakistan’s social and political life.
Nawab Akbar Bugti made himself an object of Baluch distrust and contempt by betraying Ataullah Mengal’s Provincial Baluchistan government by telling Bhutto that this government was getting arms from Iraq. Bhutto rewarded Bugti with the Governorship of Baluchistan. But Bugti’s allegation was never proved. It, however, helped Bhutto to fill up the Provincial Assembly with his own party’s defeated candidates just as governor general and Muslim League leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah did in NWFP in 1947 after removing Doctor Khan Saheb’s Congress government.
Bugti must have felt double crossed by the Pakistan establishment when the rival Bugti tribe rose against him. Then he tried to rehabilitate himself by demanding return of natural wealth, including Gwadar, of Baluchistan to its people. “Our Wasael and Sahil” (our natural resources and coasts) became his slogan for which he was killed by the Army in 2006.
A powerful Sardar, Ataullah Mengal quietened himself. Bugti was removed from the scene and now there is a conspiracy to eliminate Ataullah’s son Akhtar Mengal. He is a non aggressive but capable politician. The Army does not want to see him in power. He had become chief minister of Baluchistan in the 1990s. He was removed and subsequently put in a cage in Karachi. But in his media interviews, he showed no cantankerous feelings for anybody. He is now facing threats to his life for demanding Baluchistan’s right to its natural resources.
Like rival Bugti tribe against Akbar Bugti, a death squad headed by one Shafiq Mengal has been set-up to eliminate Akhtar Mengal. Shafiq from Khuzdar has been made very powerful by the Army. He belongs to rival Mengal tribe and said to be responsible for many deaths and disappearances. He has set up Baluch Armed Defence Organisation, a pro-Army tribal militia. This militia was established ten years after the killing of Bugti. Shafiq Mengal has grabbed Akhtar Mengal’s land, unleashing a war between the two rival armies of Mengal tribes.
Bhutto had cursed Sardar influence in Baluchistan. But, alas, Baluchistan has become a lawless province with official mechanizations. The rule of lawless elements like Shafiq Mengal is not surprising.
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Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.