The Death of a Nawab

Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Baloch Sardar and Pakistani politician was killed on the 26th of August during fighting with the Pakistan Military.

A mercurial man, he was the classic tribal leader, Baloch Nationalist and Military establishment man, often all at the same time. His tribe of Bugtis is spread across the Dera Bugti Khan district in Balochistan. The district is of critical importance to Pakistan because of it’s large gas reserves, although Balochistan has benefitted little from these reserves, Bugti has since the 1950’s been receiving large sums in royalty as exchange for allowing the federal government to use the land (one estimate puts the annual royalties to the tune of Rs.150 million).

His career was controversial to say the least, from Pakistani interior minister in the 1950’s to being falsely imprisoned on murder charges in the 1960’s, he then joined the National Awami Party consisting of his friends the Baloch and Pashtun nationalists only to turn on them after what he felt was a slight on his sense of tribal honour. Siding with the PPP government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the early 1970’s he "exposed" a conspiracy by the National Awami Party to dismember Pakistan. Appointed governor of Balochistan as reward he soon fell foul of Bhutto and was removed from office. Bhutto later used Bugti’s allegations of a seccionist movement as grounds for a military operation in Balochistan in which thousands were killed.

In the late 1980’s, he briefly served as Chief Minister of Balochistan and later on was elected MNA from his home constituency. In 2003, he along with other Baloch leaders increasingly became concerned at the major development programmes launched in Balochistan, and the lack of Baloch representation in them. Events came to a head when attacks on gas installations and bombings started happening in Balochistan. Bugti’s tacit support for the attacks eventually led to a confrontation with the Army in 2005 and finally led to his recent deatj.

An Aitchsonian, educated from Pakistan’s best schools he passed Pakistan’s elite civil service exams although he did not join the civil service. Conversely he was also a harsh man who imposed tribal punishments of death against opponents and dispossesed sub tribes which opposed him.

Whatever else his death and the seeming glee of many Army government supporters aside. His death is a tragedy, which I do not think will end the ongoing Baloch insurgency.

References
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/multim edia/story/2006/08/060818_selig_harrison_int.shtml
* A journey into disillusionment by Sherbaz Mazari
* http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsSep2004/newsbeat1sep.htm
* http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsJan2006/cover1jan2006.htm
* http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsJan2006/cover2jan2006.htm
* http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/pakistan_2868.js p
* http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/printout/0,13675,5010 60626-1205411,00.html