KARACHI, Oct 29: The Balochistan National Party, headed by Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has rejected the government-sponsored jirga on the issues pertaining to Balochistan and Baloch people. The jirga, convened by President Musharraf in Islamabad is scheduled to be held on November 8.

Sardar Mengal has maintained that it will have no importance because it does not represent any Baloch tribe.

Most of the nationalist parties and groups, including the National Party and both factions of the Baloch Students Organisations, have already rejected the jirga, describing the holding of the ‘official jirga’ as an ‘anti-Baloch people move’.

They had also given a call for a ‘social boycott’ of those prominent figures who had agreed to attend the jirga, claiming that they had resorted to betraying Baloch people for the sake of privileges they expected from the government.

The Khan of Kalat had also criticised the proposed jirga and said he had failed to understand that under what tribal code of conduct this jirga was being convened by the president.

Giving his party’s stance on the proposed Jirga, to be chaired by President Musharraf himself, Sardar Akhtar Mengal said the Gen Musharraf should first address the joint session of the parliament to fulfil the constitutional requirement for a president, instead of chairing a tribal jirga which he (the general) had always been opposing. The Sardar said Gen Musharraf believed that it was the main obstacle in the development of Balochistan.

The BNP leader further stated that Gen Musharraf had always blamed Sardars and tribal system for the backwardness of Balochistan and Baloch people and had remarked that the road to progress and prosperity in Balochistan could open only when these Sardars were eliminated. He wondered that the general had now decided to use the same slated system to promote his own agenda.

Sardar Mengal alleged that the figures likely to attend the jirga had been offered all sorts of privileges to make the move a success. However, he warned, the aim of this official jirga was to nullify the international and national impact of the grand national jirga held by the Khan of Kalat after Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s assassination, and not to resolve any problem pertaining to Balochistan and Baloch people.

“The jirga convened by the Khan of Kalat had representation of all important Baloch tribes,” he said, adding that the chieftains of all Balochistan tribes had already expressed their views through the resolutions adopted at the jirga. The “If the government is serious in finding a political solution to the problem of Balochistan, it must accept the demands made in these resolutions,” he stressed.

He claimed that the government’s move to convene the official jirga was nothing but a bid to cover up its misdeeds and divert the masses’ attention from the brutal assassination of Nawab Akbar Bugti and mislead the international community on Balochistan issue. He made it clear that the Baloch people were fully aware of the government’s ‘evil designs’ and they could not be misled by the government.

Sardar Mengal said his party would launch a mass mobilisation campaign on Nov 23 with a long march from Gwadar to Quetta.