The situation in Balochistan might lead to
disintegration of the country, declared former chief minister of
Balochistan and Chairman of Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM)
Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal here on Monday.
He said the military-led government and not the nationalists would be
responsible for any damage to the integrity of the country. Mengal was
addressing a seminar organised by the PONM on constitutional, political,
economic and cultural exploitation of oppressed nations in the perspective
of facts and figures and its solution in the light of international
principles.
He asked the powers that be to hang him for his resistance against what
he claimed another military operation in his province. "I will love to die
for my own people, my own land and my province," he said.
Mengal refused to "condemn" those who were attacking military men in
Balochistan and appealed to all the Sindhi, Baloch, Seraiki and Pakhtoon
nationalists to "retaliate against the army with stones if they were not
in a position to take up guns".
Mengal said he had developed bitter feelings against the Punjabis
because they, according to him, were helping the military to crush the
oppressed nations. He said he was being asked to declare the Baloch
warriors busy attacking troops in Balochistan as "terrorists".
He said only Mullahs had "terrorists" in their ranks and the people
fighting in Balochistan were only using their right to defense and could
not be termed terrorists. He alleged: "You people are sending military to
kill the Baloch and you expect from me to appreciate it. How is it
possible?" he asked.
"I am an honourable man and will never condemn the retaliation by the
Baloch people," he said. Mengal said if he could not fight against the
armed forces with his own hands because of his old age, it did not mean
that he would condemn those who were showing defiance and offering their
lives for the Baloch rights.
"If anyone has any objection against my thinking of resistance against
the army and invaders, he is welcome to arrest me and hang me. I don’t
want to die of heart attack or cancer," Mengal said.
He assailed those who accused nationalists of violating the
Constitution. He said such forces had damaged the Constitution to such an
extent that now it was beyond correction and the country needed a new
Constitution based on principle of equality.
He said the nationalists were only demanding democracy and their right
to govern themselves. He said Pakhtoons were their brothers and could join
them (Baloch nationalists). But, he said, what would the Punjabis do who
had nothing to sell to the outside world and had only “Data Darbar”.
He said Balochistan was being developed now because it suited the
Punjabis and the military, as they want to make it a colony of the army
and federation. About Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain’s offer to hold a
dialogue with nationalist forces in Balochistan, he said the PM was a
helpless man. He said he would ask the general to hand over power to the
people otherwise he would be responsible for the break up of the country.
Pakhtoonkhwa Mili Awami Party’s leader and PONM deputy chair Mahmood
Khan Achakzai said time had come to decide that who would rule the
country, either 140 million people or only one million army. He said the
nationalists were the most peaceful people as they were struggling for
their right to govern themselves.
He said the nationalists did not want to break the country as this was
their own motherland and they were the sons of the soils. He said the
nationalist forces had come to the conclusion that they would not accept
the rule of only one powerful ethnic group that was supporting the
military establishment to keep others subjugated.
He said even Quaid-iAzam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was used by the
bureaucracy to do an illegal act when he dismissed the NWFP constitutional
assembly. He also accused the agencies of pushing the country to the brink
of disaster.
SNP president and PONM’s secretary information and coordination Mr.
Abdul Majeed Kanjoo said time had come to court martial all those who had
been violating the constitution. He said the Seraiki people had been
facing the worst kind of injustice and exploitation but now they would not
tolerate such treatment.
He said the Punjabis had never showed any resistance to the invaders in
the history. He alleged the generals got the lands allotted in the Seraiki
region and now they were eying the wealth of Balochistan. He claimed both
the Constitution and the army had become controversial. At the end of the
seminar, a resolution condemning the "military operation" in Balochistan
was passed.
Nationalist leaders Dr Qadir Magsi, Jalal Mehmood Shah, Ubaidullah
Bhutto, Amir Bhutto, Hameed Asghar Shaheen, Abdul Rahim Khan Mandokhel,
Mir Afzal Khan and others addressed the gathering of nationalists.
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