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.