Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal's statement before the Supreme Court, his presence at political powwows and talks with media persons during his visit to Islamabad last week were an admixture of shrewd politics and an alarming narrative of reality on ground in Balochistan. Not that he said something entirely new; in fact what he was saying is already known. But what sets him apart from the rest is his stature in tribal hierarchy, political standing and his well-honed pragmatism of thought and action.
On the face of it, he appeared to be sounding a last-chance warning, was sharply critical of the so-called Punjabi Establishment for all the miseries of the Baloch and likened his six demands that he made before the court to Sheikh Mujib's historic but controversial six points. But read closely, all of his interlocutions in Islamabad and his statements had that clear and unmistakable ring of wish and hope that things can improve given honest appraisal and determined follow-up. He talked of a 'soft divorce' and offered for a 'political solution', as he effectively lobbed the ball in the Establishment's court. "The ball is in their [Establishment] court now. If they want to play fair we are ready to play fair," he told an interviewer at the end of his four-day visit to the Capital.
But then there are always certain rules to every game which the players have to observe to make the match a fruitful exercise. Firstly, it would be in the fitness of things that the people should know who he is speaking for. Definitely not for the incumbent ruling elite which he says is a 'manufactured' product, and lacks representative character. But he is not speaking for the angry nationalists at home and in exile - the newspapers have reported their prompt rejection of him representing their point of view. The third possibility is that he speaks for the political opposition in the country, and that is partly confirmed by the fact that during his four-day visit he met the leadership of PML-N, PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami, the parties are in the field now against the PPP-led coalition - and not the MQM or the ANP or the PML-Q. And that is indeed a positive development in that he has returned home breaking his three-year silence in self-imposed exile. His logic that 'elections will become selections if we hold them in the war-zone that Balochistan' has become, has the weight as an argument, but, perhaps, that is the only way to know of the people's hopes and aspirations.
Without in any way trivialising the timeliness of Mengal's warning that Balochistan today is what East Pakistan was in late 1960s, the comparison is not backed by history and logic. Sheikh Mujib's power was embedded in grassroots democracy and his Awami League that had won almost all the seats in parliamentary election from the then East Pakistan. But that's not the case here; the bitter truth is that Balochistan politics is fundamentally a power play among tribal elite. If the latest election - courtesy of which the Balochistan Assembly has as many ministers and advisors as its members - there is little hope that the Baloch voter would have his or her free will reflected in an electoral exercise. How to transfer political power to the common man is the biggest issue in that province, and leaders like Akhtar Jan Mengal have had that work cut out for them for quite some time now. Empowerment of common man which can only come about through genuine democratic elections is the much-needed requirement of Baloch politics that if and when done, a kind of normality will automatically prevail.
Mengal's six-demand formula has a clear political dimension, while he was in the court that is hearing a case of rampant human rights violations in Balochistan, may appear to some an attempt at making political capital. That won't be a fair assessment; Balochistan is burning and someone has to be identified and held responsible. If it is not the Establishment then it should go beyond the flat, opaque denial the kind of which was made before the court the other day. If there is a proverbial 'foreign hand' then the government has to go beyond that two-word claim and say whose hand is it. If out of 17 poorest districts of Pakistan, 16 are of Balochistan then the parliament has to go beyond merely enacting the 18th Amendment and make sure that fruits of autonomy do percolate to the people of Balochistan - if possible by bypassing the elite class. Of course, pointing fingers at others for one's own weakness is part of human nature. But the criticality of the ongoing turmoil and near-insurgency situation in Balochistan no more brooks blame-games as it warrants an entirely detached, neutral analysis and total commitment to face this life-and-death challenge to national unity and harmony.