Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal said on Tuesday he resigned from the National Assembly after being hopeless with the state, which he claimed, failed to address the provincial issues since independence.

“I won’t take my resignation back. If I had 1% hope from these leaders then I wouldn’t have taken this step,” he said in an exclusive interview with Spot Light with Munizae Jahangir following his decision to quit as a member of the National Assembly.

Mengal, who is his faction of the Balochistan National Party-M, took the decision on the third death anniversary of his father Sardar Ataullah Mengal. When he was not allowed to give a speech in NA due to a quorum, he informed the reporters afterwards.

The nationalist leader lamented that he never listened to his elders and seniors who advised him to not believe the federal government leaders as they “disregard” provincial leaders after one year in power. He apologised to his 65,000 voters who brought him to august house.

Earlier, the BNP-M leader said that he would not give interviews to those who don’t understand Balochistan issues.

“I’ve chosen to boycott interviews with most anchors except those who genuinely understand the issues facing Balochistan and have made Balochistan a matter of discussion,” he said in a post on social media.

‘Lack of confidence’ on pillars of state

He clarified that the system in which he had a lack of confidence was Parliament, judiciary, politicians, political parties, and media.

“It is my decision that I will not give an interview to the media except for a few anchors who are understanding the Balochistan issue or have understood it. They include you [Munizae Jahangir], Hamid Mir, Asma Shirazi, Matiullah Jan and Asad Ali Toor.”

While speaking about the Balochistan issue, he said that the “key” to the Balochistan issue was in “GHQ”.

Mengal lamented that he tried a lot to present the province’s issue at the national and provincial level but to no avail. “Everyone listens to our problems, but I don’t know whether they have lost the listening sense or do not understand it or asked to not understand,” he said.

Lack of quorum in NA was ‘by design’

When asked, Mengal said that he wanted to tender his resignation on Monday but could not do it as he met the NA speaker late. According to him, the speaker assured him of giving time to the session.

He added that he had also spoken to Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and former NA speaker Asad Qaiser, asking them to not interfere in his speech.

But he was “astonished” to see people leaving the assembly when he was about to deliver his speech. The BNP-M president added that such kind of situation does not arise when lawmakers fight or trade barbs.

When asked, he said: “The lack of a quorum in the assembly was by design. No one is ready to listen to Balochistan issue in the house.”

Missing person issue

He stated that no one contacted him after his resignation. It was up to the people sitting on “comfortable couches” to talk to the “people on mountains”, Mengal added.

The BNP-M president went on to add that he had warned the PDM leadership that the young generation would be distracted if provincial issues were not resolved.

In response to a question, he said: “Sorry to say there is no politician here. There is a business. Just check the manifestos of political parties. It does not have Balochistan. Balcohistan is important when they have four seats.”

He was of the view that the people in government should stop describing themselves as “leaders” if they cannot resolve the missing persons’ issue. “We are saying right from the first day that Balochistan is not run by politicians or the federal government, it is run by day one from the GHQ.”

He claimed that the anti-national narratives were not new in the province, but starting from 1947. According to Mengal, such sentiments continued because of the “government, state, and state institutions.”

He claimed that there were some beneficiaries, including people in power, in the whole conflict.

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Missing persons issue not limited to Balochistan, claims Mengal

In response to a query, Mengal said even if the nationalist parties win all the seats they are less than the total number of seats in a Punjab Division or districts.

When asked about the next step, he said: “We have gone to people in the past as well and now we will go in a way and try to tell them not to let any hope from the Centre. Not just state institutions or political parties disappointed us, but also the judiciary.”

At one point, he wondered if anyone was ever punished for their alleged crimes in Balochistan. “Before giving compensation to the families of missing persons you should first admit it as affected families don’t want this,” he said.

When asked about the future, he said: “I will do politics, but I don’t think this election can be a cure to our issues.”

Who is Sardar Akhtar Mengal?

Akhtar is the son of Sardar Ataullah Mengal. His father was the first elected Balochistan chief minister. Contrary to the common belief, Ataullah promoted education in the province. In his 10 months of tenure, he established the Balochistan Education Board and Bolan Medical and Engineering College.

He was removed from power after a conflict with the federal government in February 1973 as the governor’s rule was imposed in the province. In his political endeavour, Ataullah Mengal’s young son, Asad Mengal, was “enforced disappeared.” Asad is considered to be the first missing person in the resource-rich but backward province. When Ataullah’s second son, Akthar, entered politics, he tried his best to keep the precedent set by his father.

When former defence minister Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in 2006, the BNP-M party resigned from national and provincial assemblies. Akhtar was arrested in the former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s era. According to reports, the nationalist leader was brought to the court in a “cell”.

He was a member of the provincial assembly from 2008 to 2018. Mengal offered conditional support to the PTI-led government after assurances to resolve the missing persons issue.

When the PTI failed to deliver on its promise, he decided to part ways with the PTI government and joined the no-confidence motion against sitting prime minister Imran Khan. But Mengal also joined the Pakistan Democratic Movement government after assurances from the multi-party confab to resolve the issue of the enforced disappearance.

He forewarned the government many times that the young Baloch were distancing from national politics because of the “lack of real representatives of people” from Balochistan in the government.