Nawab Akhtar Mengal said that the genuine Baloch leadership should be given priority over the hand-made leadership.     — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Former Balochistan chief minister and president of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, along with other Baloch leaders, met former prime minister and chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif at the Balochistan House here on Friday, DawnNews reported.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal said that the genuine Baloch leadership should be given priority over the cosmetic, hand-made leadership.

During the meeting, also attended by BNP’s Central Leader Sanaullah Baloch among other leaders of the province, discussions took place over the coming elections and the name of the caretaker prime minister.

The PML-N chief apprised the Baloch leaders of his party’s recommendations on the Baloch issue.

The BNP chief presented Sharif with his six-points for the resolution of the Baloch issue. Earlier on Thursday Mengal had submitted the six points at the Supreme Court’s hearing on the Balochistan law and order case.

Speaking to media representatives today, Mengal said that the sensitivity of the situation would have to be considered and that none of the six points presented were against the constitution or law.

Furthermore, the Baloch leader said that his six points should not be considered any different from the six-points presented by leader of the Bengali nationalist movement Sheikh Mujeeb-ur-Rehman prior to Bangladesh’s separation from Pakistan.

Mengal added that if steps are not taken to implement the six-point charter then the people of Balochistan will not be able to continue with Pakistan.

‘Enforced disappearances cause of unrest’

The former Balochistan chief minister, finally spoke his mind in the Supreme Court on Thursday after having remained silent during three years of self-imposed exile. Mengal described enforced disappearances as the real cause of the current unrest in Balochistan.

“Why should not we divorce peacefully rather than seeking for a bloody divorce if the rulers have decided to keep on giving us mutilated dead bodies,” Sardar Mengal told a three-judge bench with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in the chair.

The estranged Baloch leader had especially come from London to apprise people of the issues responsible for the breakdown of law and order in the restive province.

Sardar Mengal recorded a brief, but to-the-point, statement before the bench on Thursday in which he pointed fingers straight at the rulers and senior military leaders for the overall economic downturn of the country in general and Balochistan in particular.

Six-point charter

According to the six-point charter presented in the Supreme Court by Akhtar Mengal on Thursday, all covert and overt military operations against Baloch people should be ended immediately; all missing persons should be procured before a court of law; all proxy death squads operating in a manner like Al Shams and Al Badar operated (in Bangladesh) allegedly under the supervision of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) should be disbanded; Baloch political parties should be allowed to function and resume their political activities without any interference from intelligence agencies; persons responsible for inhuman torture, killing and dumping of bodies of Baloch political leaders and activists should be brought to justice; and measures should be initiated for rehabilitation of thousands of displaced Baloch living in appalling condition.

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