An Interview with Shahzain Bugti

BALOCHISTAN: Centre’s Policies Created Trust Deficit: Shahzain Bugti

By Mumtaz Alvi, August 08, 2009

ISLAMABAD: Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP)’s central leader Shahzain Bugti on Friday warned that the movement of separation from Pakistan could intensify, in case the rulers failed to read what was going through the minds and hearts of the people of Balochistan.

He noted that they believed in Pakistan, where all subjects enjoyed equal rights and the federating units were treated equally.

Talking to The News on telephone from Lahore, Shahzain Bugti, who is also the party’s Balochistan chapter president, called on the government to desist from ‘lip-service’ to the people of Balochistan, advocating concrete confidence-building measures to win back their trust in the Centre.

Shahzain contended that it would be in Pakistan’s own interests to reach out to the people of Balochistan and mitigate their long-continuing sufferings.

“You visit Balochistan and will find out how deep-rooted the hatred against the Centre is,” he claimed. He made it was clear the inhabitants of Pakistan’ s largest but the poorest province were not at all satisfied with the federal government’s policies.

“What exactly a Baloch youth wants is freedom because he and his elders have been cheated so much in the past,” he said, when asked about the feelings of Baloch youth about Pakistan.

Shahzain alleged that not the people of his province, but the Centre’s policies were responsible for the rampant trust deficit and discontentment among them.

Shahzain has a Masters degree in Political Science from the University of Houston. He is the grandson of late Nawab Akbar Bugti and the son of Talal Bugti, who heads the JWP after the killing of his father in August 2006.

Asked about the pardon sought by the PPP leadership from the people of Balochistan last year and the formation of a committee, he remarked, “Pardons are no solution to our deep-rooted problems and committees have neither worked in the past nor they will now.”

He pointed out lakhs of Bugti tribesmen were still languishing away from their homes since the military operation of 2006, complaining no ruler ever bothered to take care of them or to visit them. There are 0.45 million Bugtis living in poor conditions in various parts of Balochistan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Karachi, Rajanpur and other areas. Hardly 30,000-35,000 are left in the Agency, he said.

Shahzain said resentment touched a dangerous level during the Musharraf’s rule, particularly after he launched a military operation. “It was because of Musharraf, many youth took up arms and went to the mountains and rebelled against the state,” he maintained.

Shahzain said his father Talal Bugti was elected the JWP President by the party’s central Shoora after the death of Akbar Bugti and he was in jail at that time. He was elected through a democratic process to head the party at the Balochistan level afterwards. He strongly dispelled the impression that tribal leaders were responsible for the backwardness of the province and his people.

He said this widespread hatred and discontentment among the people of Balochistan could gradually fizzle out by resolving Balochistan’s problems,giving financial and administrative autonomy to the province and control on its own resources.

Shahzain did not agree with this reporter that JWP was divided after the death of Akbar Bugti and asserted the party was united, alleging Mir Aali Bugti was brought forward by certain invisible forces to hurt the Bugtis, who were not prepared to compromise on the province’s rights.

The JWP plans to take a delegation of members of the human right bodies and media persons to Dera Bugti shortly so that they themselves could see the situation there, he said.

SOURCE: http://www.thenews.com.pk/

‘India being blamed to justify military action’

Thursday, 06 Aug, 2009

LAHORE: Indian interference is being alleged in Balochistan to justify the military operation, says Jamhoori Watan Party President Shahzain Bugti.

Speaking as chief guest at a seminar entitled ‘Threats to National Security and Our Responsibilities’ here on Wednesday, Bugti said the government should prove its allegations of Indian interference in Balochistan if it had any evidence. ‘We are accused of being pro-India. We would have voted for inclusion of Balochistan in India in 1947 if we had been in favor of India,’ he said.

Bugti, the grandson of late chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, said the federal government always wronged Balochistan. ‘Baloch people were asked to come down from mountains in 1960 and hanged. Nawab Akbar Bugti was assassinated and Gwadar was snatched from Balochistan.’ Bugti said allegations of target killing of Punjabis were being levelled to justify the presence of Frontier Constabulary in Balochistan.

He said Baloch people did not hate Punjabis. He said his party was criticised for demanding royalty for gas. He however said that his party demanded the royalty for the Balochistan government and not for itself.

He said the gas emanating from Balochistan was not available in most parts of the province and its rates were higher there than Punjab and Sindh.

Awami National Party Secretary General Ehsan Wyne said he spent three months with the late Bugti in Kot Lakhpat Jail, but never heard him talking against Pakistan.

He said there had been eight military operations in Balochistan so far and the last one was still in progress. He said people revolted as they did in
East Pakistan whenever they were deprived of their rights.

He said people’s rights would have to be restored for trial of Pervez Musharraf. He said Punjab was abused for the evils of its bureaucracy. Pakistan Democratic Party Secretary General Nawaz Gondal said most problems being faced by the country had been created by dictators, who destroyed all national institutions to prolong their rules.

He said the country needed an institution to prevent loot and plunder. He said Musharraf should be tried for the assassination of the late Bugti.

He said democracy had not been restored in the country despite the general election, adding that the incumbent government was civil, but not
democratic.

Former federal law minister SM Masood said the country was facing problems because of various institutions’ attempts to usurp each other’s powers.
He said the tug of war destabilised the country, while foreign pressures were also creating problems.

SOURCE: http://www.dawn.com/

Baloch have every right over their gas and Gwadar Port: Shahzain Bugti

August 06, 2009

LAHORE - Baloch people have always been betrayed by the dictators notwithstanding the fact that they expressed their solidarity with the federation and remained loyal to the country.

Shah Zain Bugti, the grandson of late Nawab Akbar Bugti and President Balochistan Jamhoori Watan Party stated this while addressing a seminar organised by Istaqlal Party at the Lahore High Court Bar on Wednesday.

Former Law Minister SM Masud, President Istaqlal Party Manzoor Ali Gillani, President LHCBA Justice (r) Nasira Iqbal, former President LHCBA Ahmad Awais, secretary General ANP, Ehsan Wyne, Hameedudin Almashriqi, and Secretary General PDP Nawaz Gondal also addressed the participants of the seminar.

Zain Bugti shed light on the miserable plight of the Baloch and said their leaders, whether it was Noroz or Akbar Bugti, have always been bluffed by the military rulers. It is time that the Baloch should be given their rights.

He said no Baloch was getting any assistant from India and they were true Pakistan who had voted to merge with Pakistan during the partition. He criticised Pervez Musharraf for victimising the Baloch only for his personal gains. He said Akbar Bugti wanted royalty on gas and other resources as a right of the Baloch people and not for his self. The Balochistan royalty from the Federation stands at Rs 2550 billion, he said adding, they also have a right over Gwadar.

Shah Zain strongly dispelled that Punjabis were being targeted in Balochistan and accused the FC in this respect. He said Punjabis in Balochistan were entitled equal rights and protection as others.

Manzoor Ali Gilani in his address called upon the rulers to hear voice of the Baloch leaders who are sincere with the country and wanted it to be integrated. Gillani also got a resolution carried on the occasion to seek immediate end to the operation in Balochistan, as it was no solution to any problem in that province.

Emphasising implementation on the Charter of Democracy (CoD) as a means to strengthen the institutions, he regretted that both the major political parties signatory to that are reluctant in this regard despite the fact they had come to power to act upon the same. About the submitting of NRO before the Parliament, he said, looters of the public money would not be let go scot-free. He said the people are the true parliament and they would not let the looters devour the national wealth. Gillani also expressed deep concern over the attempts being made to malign the lawyers’ movement and its fruit and resolved to resist the same with tooth and nail.


SM Masud found the tug of war in the institutions to overstep authority of other a major factor of instability in the country. He said Pakistan needs stability to save its future as in the fight to capture oil and other resources of the Middle East and Central Asia the stage is going to be set and Pakistan occupying a very important geo-strategic location therein. He blamed the dictatorial rule for always pushing the country to American flank and selling out vital national interests to it. He termed refusal to Russian visit by the Prime Minister in 1951 a bad one at a time when Stalin-led Moscow was highly hostile to India and Pakistan could have made gain out of it. He said the extra-ordinary leaning to America has developed such a situation for Pakistan
wherein the matters of redrawing its borders in Western and Eastern Indus are on the rife in the western media today.

Justice (r) Nasira Iqbal also called for giving provincial autonomy to Balochistan and dispensing with the concurrent list of the Constitution. She blamed Musharraf for doing the worst with Baloch people.

Ehsan Wyne said Baloch people were patriotic and that if nationalist parties raised their voice it was not separation but for their rights. He said sense of deprivation previously broke the country into two and the same feeling in the Baloch must be addressed if we don’t want to repeat the history.

SOURCE: http://www.nation.com.pk/

Pak falsely accusing India, says Baloch leader

August 6, 2009

The people who are fighting for the cause and development of Balochistan are patriotic Pakistanis and are falsely accused of being pro-India by those who are against Balochistan, Jamhoori Watan Party chief Shahzain Bugti has said.

Speaking at a seminar 'Threats to National Security and our Responsibilities', he said the Baloch, had they been pro-India, would not have chosen to accede to Pakistan at the time of partition.

Shahzain said the alleged 'Indian interference' was just an excuse to justify a military operation in the province, adding that the government should prove such allegations by disclosing any evidence they may have.

He said the Baloch had been victimised in the past and that the federal government had broken their promises to the province on many occasions.

The Daily Times quoted him as saying that the government had assassinated his grandfather, Akbar Bugti, and added that Islamabad had 'stolen' Gwadar from Balochistan.

He said the federal government had the wrong impression that Balochistan asked for royalty on gas for anything other than the benefit of the province.

Shahzain said it was a tragedy that the gas coming from the province was not available in most parts of Balochistan itself and its price in Balochistan was higher than in Punjab and Sindh.

He said no target killings were being carried out in the province, adding that the Baloch people considered Punjabis as their brothers.

SOURCE: http://news.rediff.com/

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