Balochistan officially became a full province of Pakistan on 1st July 1970, when the infamous one-unit system was abolished. In aftermath of 1970 elections, for the first time a direct elected government of Balochistan took power. However the NAP-JUI government could not last more than 9 months when it was toppled by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. That was followed by a moderate level insurgency which ended with toppling of Bhutto government at the hands of General Zia in July 1977.
During the 11 year regime of Zia, Balochistan was first ruled by a military governor and then through a controlled political setup which came into existence after non-party elections of 1985. Essentially, Politics of Balochistan started from 1988 with the elections after the plane crush of Zia ul Haq. Nawab Akbar Bugti became the Chief Minister (CM) of Balochistan in 1989 and currently Nawab Sanaullah Zehri is the CM of the province. In these last 27 years, did these political governments were able to bring meaningful change in Balochistan? How politics evolved during this period and how successive governments performed? These are the questions to be answered.
Nawab Akbar Bugti was the first proper CM of Balochistan after Zia regime. He ruled the province for 18 months and left a good legacy. He was known to be a good administrator and bureaucrats serving under him support this assertion. He is credited with bringing the issues of Gas royalty and arrears of Balochistan before federal government and forcing them to agree on a formula to compensate Balochistan for its lost share. Another feather in the cap of Nawab Bugti as a CM was that he suppressed a campaign against Zikri minority using iron fist. He showed zero tolerance for the religious parties who were creating problems for Zikri community and that’s the reason that even today Zikri community is living in relative peace as compared to other religious minorities.
Nawab Akbar Bugti was succeeded by Taj Jamal as the CM of Balochistan in 1990. Arguably the period of Taj Jamali is considered to be the worst in terms of governance. There was no sense of official decorum and it’s said that ministers broke into the office of CM to get their documents signed even when CM was in midst of any meeting. Taj Jamali was succeeded by Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi who served as CM of Balochistan from 1993 to 1996. Period of Nawab Magsi was relatively better as compared to his predecessor. Notwithstanding the fact that Nawab Magsi was running a coalition government, He managed to put his coalition partners under a tight leash and was not blackmailed by them.
After 1997 elections, Sardar Akhtar Mengal was elected CM of Balochistan. He was the third nationalist CM of the province after his father Sardar Attaullah Mengal and Nawab Akbar Bugti. There is nothing in his credit in terms of economic development due to the economic crunch that country was going through at that time. Akhtar Mengal resigned as CM of Balochistan when his party, BNP, split into two halves in 1998. It was alleged at that time that BNP split into two halves on instructions of federal government. Few years back Nawaz Sharif admitted that toppling the government of Akhtar Mengal by creating split in his part was a huge mistake.
Jan Jamali, a nominee of Nawaz Sharif, served as next CM of Balochistan from 1998 till the time when General Musharraf toppled the entire system and sent everyone packing. Government of Jan Jamali was also known to be poor performing in terms of governance. With the Martial law of October 1999, a decade long, second phase of democracy in Balochistan came to an abrupt end. There was no significant development in economic and political terms during this period. No mega project was initiated or completed during this period and the political tendencies of changing loyalties flourished in the stated period.
Shahzada Zulfiqar, a senior analyst based in Quetta, says that there was no significant change on the ground for the people of the Balochistan. He is of the view that reasons for failure of democratic governments from 1988 to 1999 are systematic as well as due to the personal failure of the leaders. “Political leaders had to work within certain constraints and that provided them limited options on what decisions which they can take,” he added. However he does not fully exonerate the political leaders from the blame of failure. “Almost all CMs in the given period did not have public welfare as their top priority and that’s the reason that they failed to do something for the people.”
Justice retired Ameer ul Mulk Mengal served as Governor of Balochistan from 1999 till 2003. He was the chief executive of Balochistan from coup of October 1999 to general elections in October 2002. It’s believed that Justice Mengal was a Yes Man of President Musharraf and did not have his say in the affairs. There was no notable development during the rule of Ameer ul Mulk Mengal.
Jam Yousaf took office as CM of Balochistan in aftermath of 2002 elections. Jam Yousaf was member of the Kings Party, PML-Q. It was well know that Jam Yousaf was running a controlled setup and he did not have full autonomy to work and take decisions. However, he was known to be uncompromising on certain issues. In 2004, a parliamentary committee was formed under leadership of Mushahid Hussain to determine political solution of the ongoing problems in Balochistan. This committee proposed a formula that all resources in Balochistan should be shared between Baloch and Pashtun on 50-50 basis. This proposal was torpedoed by Jam Yousaf and He opposed it entirely despite being the CM of Kings party.
Jam Yousaf was followed by the infamous Nawab Aslam Raisani as the CM of Balochistan. No one contradicts the assertion that five year government of Nawab Raisani was most corrupt in history of Balochistan. Out of 65 members of Balochistan Assembly, almost 60 were part of the government in some form. There were only a couple of members in opposition. Corruption was all time high during the government of Nawab Raisani. According to Senator Sana Baloch Rs. 360 billion were embezzled during the government of Nawab Raisani. Senator Sana Baloch claims to have extracted this figure from an unpublished report compiled by successive Provincial government of Balochistan for the purpose of accountability but later suppressed.
Nawab Raisani had a very good reputation in terms of financial conduct when he used to be a CM. He was Finance Minister in cabinet of Taj Jamali and his financial integrity was exemplary during that period. In senate elections at that time, he refused to sell his vote when all other political stalwarts sold their votes. Massive corruption under his watch as CM was a 180 degree turn from his past reputation.
Moreover, financial corruption was not the only negative point of Nawab Raisani. He proved himself to be an extremely non-serious and careless CM. During last two years of his government, he settled in Islamabad and seldom visited Quetta. Principal Secretary of CM used to shuttle between Quetta and Islamabad to carry the files for signatures of CM. There are numerous examples when provincial secretaries and ministers waited for several days in Islamabad just to meet Nawab Raisani. His government was dismissed by federal government under article 234 of constitution after repeated attacks on Hazara community which killed hundreds of people.
Imran Baloch has been a part of student politics and has deeply studied politics in Balochistan. He believes that politics in Balochistan is a game of economic interests where different slogans are used to deceive the people. “Nationalist parties blackmail the federal government to get in power and forget about their promises and principle stands,” lamented Imran Baloch. He believes that breakup of political parties in Balochistan has been a regular practice and it has been one of the main reasons that political leaders have failed to deliver in Balochistan.
In 2013, Dr. Malik Baloch was nominated as CM of Balochistan despite the fact that his party was in minority. He cashed both nationalism and middle class denomination to come in power and rule the province for 30 months. Performance of Dr. Malik was much better as compared to Nawab Raisani. However, Dr. Malik also failed to live up to the expectations that people had from nationalists.
Nawab Ghaus Baksh Barozai, former caretaker CM of Balochistan, believes that reasons for failure of political governments in Balochistan are that politics has been commercialized. “Politicians in last 25 years have only served their self interests,” says former Caretaker CM. “Slogans of Nationalism, merit and federalism are nothing but means of deception used by the politicians in Balochistan.”
Nawab Sanaullah Zehri is the incumbent CM of Balochistan. He has been in the office for almost two months. It’s too early to judge his performance and conduct. However if history of last 25 years is any indication then it would be unwise to tie high hopes from him.
This Article was originally published in 25th Anniversary special of The News International
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