By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Veteran politician Sardar Akhtar Mengal, leader of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), resigned from the National Assembly on Tuesday, saying his province has been consistently marginalized and ignored.
“Our province has been consistently marginalized and ignored by this House. Each day, we are pushed further against the wall, leaving us with no choice but to reconsider our roles,” Mengal said in a letter to the speaker.
“The lack of genuine representation in this Assembly for the people of Balochistan has left voices like mine unable to bring about meaningful change. It has become increasingly clear that our attempts to speak or protest are met with hostility; our people are either silenced, labeled as traitors, or worse, killed.” Mengal was elected from Khuzdar in the general elections held on February 8.
Mengal’s resignation comes amid heightened security tensions in Balochistan after recent deadly attacks and protests over enforced disappearances.
Dozens of militants affiliated with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) launched numerous attacks late last month across Balochistan, targeting security personnel and civilians, particularly those from Punjab. They went on a rampage across the province, storming police stations, blowing up railway tracks, and setting fire to almost three dozen vehicles.
At least 50 people, including 14 security personnel, were killed in a region vital to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.
The assaults were the most widespread in years by ethnic militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province — Pakistan’s largest by area but its most economically backward.
The army has recently repeatedly referred to an ethnic rights movement in Balochistan being led by young people, many of them educated women, as a “terrorist proxy.”
The protesters have been calling for an end to what they describe as a pattern of enforced disappearances and human rights abuses by security forces, which deny the charge.
Mengal said that under the current circumstances, he “finds it impossible to continue in this capacity, as my presence here no longer serves any purpose for the people I represent.”
“The biggest murderers are politicians who have made a business out of politics,” the Baloch leader told reporters outside parliament.
He also acknowledged that his resignation would upset thousands of voters, saying, “I apologize to them.”
“The murder of anyone in the country — be they Urdu-speaking, Pashto, or Baloch — is carried out by the judiciary for not providing justice,” he added.
In a post on X, Mengal termed his resignation a “tribute” to his father, BNP founder Sardar Attaullah Mengal.
“On the third death anniversary of my father, Sardar Attaullah Mengal, I resign as a member of Parliament as a tribute to him,” Mengal wrote.
“Under these circumstances, I find it impossible to act any longer in this capacity because my presence here has not been of any benefit to the people I represent.”
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