Sui Gas and Balochistan

Mengal rules out compromise on rights Monday,29 June,2009

QUETTA: Balochistan National Party-M chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal said on Sunday there would be no compromise on the national rights of Baloch people who were determined to defeat the elements who had usurped the coast and resources of the province.

Addressing a public meeting, he said that besides looting resources of the Baloch people the usurpers had also plundered the resources of Sindh and Pakhtunkhwa. He said the land of the Pakhtuns was still without its real identity.

He alleged the rulers had deceived the Baloch in the name of negotiations in the past and after the bitter experience the people would not be misled again.

The public meeting adopted a resolution urging the United Nations to intervene to stop the killing of Baloch people in military operations, detaining of political activists and plunder of Balochistan’s resources.

The meeting held at the Ayub Stadium at the end of the party’s national council adopted several other resolutions. One of them said that the BNP would effectively use whatever means it deemed fit to achieve the right to self-determination, including creation of ‘a national state for the Baloch people’.

Akhtar Mengal presided over the meeting. Mohinuddin Baloch of Baloch Students Organisation, Mir Hasil Bizenjo of National Party, Rauf Lala of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Khudadad Khan of the Awami National Party and Mohammad Rahmoo of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz addressed the gathering.

Another resolution rejected the Gwadar project and said it aimed at converting the Baloch majority into a minority, to destroy the traditional economy of native fishermen and to displace the Baloch population. It said the oil terminal and oil city would pollute the Gulf of Baloch.

The meeting said that being a nationalist and progressive party, the BNP-M was struggling against tribalism, sectarianism and opportunism and promoting national thinking among the Baloch people.

The meeting rejected all mega projects, including Saindak, Rekodick and laying of gas pipeline, and demanded their cancellation.

A resolution claimed that the BNP would continue to expose the designs of establishment and agencies and Punjab’s interference in the region, particularly in affairs of Afghanistan.

Earlier, the party re-elected Sardar Akhtar Mengal as its president and Habib Jalib Baloch as secretary-general.

The meeting of the BNP’s national council, attended by 500 councillors, also elected the following office-bearers:

Senior vice-president Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, vice-president Sajid Tareen, deputy secretary-general Jehanzeb Baloch, joint-secretary Akhtar Hussain, information secretary Agha Hasan Baloch, finance secretary Amal Baloch, labour wing secretary Razzak Lango, peasant wing secretary Malik Naseer Shahwani and women wing secretary Yasmin Baloch.

The council also elected 32 members of the executive committee.

fears grow over condition of leader

Balochistan: Fears Grow Over Condition of Leader

Monday, 03 March 2008

Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s familyare concerned over the failure by the authorities to provide adequate medical treatment outside jail. Below is an article published by Dawn: The family of Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal has expressed fears that he may be killed in jail like his cousin Hasan Gichki. President of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) and former chief minister Akhtar Mengal, who has been in the Karachi Central Prison since December 2006, is reported to be suffering from a cardiac problem. Voicing serious concern about Akhtar Mengal’s health, his relatives said they had doubts about the credentials of the jail doctor, but the authorities were not allowing him to meet a doctor of his choice. On Sunday, a private television channel quoted the jail doctor, Dr Jehanzeb, as saying that Sardar Mengal had a ‘cardiac condition’. However, Sindh Inspector-General Prisons Yameen Khan told Dawn that Mr Mengal was normal and there was no cardiac problem. “The jail doctor and a doctor from the Civil Hospital Karachi have examined Akhtar Mengal. His ECG is normal and he is not suffering from any ailment,” the IG prisons said. Sardar Mengal is facing charges of taking hostage two Military Intelligence officials [...]. Four of his servants have already been convicted in the case. Akhtar Mengal’s father Sardar Attaullah Mengal told Dawn that during a meeting with his children on Saturday, Sardar Akhter asked them to leave because he could not sit in an upright position. His children said he was perspiring profusely and was unable to get up from the bed. “We cannot rely on the jail’s doctor and the authorities are not taking him to a hospital,” Attaullah Mengal said. Fearing for his son’s life, Sardar Mengal alleged that Hasan Gichki had been killed by the government in the same prison a few years ago. Sardar Akhtar Mengal was placed under house arrest at the Lasi Farm in Sakran near Hub after it was declared a sub-jail. In December 2006, police arrested him and brought to Karachi. Addressing a hurriedly-called press conference at the Karachi Press Club, BNP (Mengal) leader Akhtar Lango expressed fears for Sardar Mengal’s life. The former Balochistan MPA said that Akhtar Mengal had been in jail for one and a half years and he suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure. He said that despite court orders, Sardar Mengal was being denied medical treatment outside the jail.