Daily Times

Sardar Akhtar Mengal, chief of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), resigned from the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The veteran politician’s resignation — which awaits acceptance – comes amid heightened security tensions in Balochistan.

In a letter addressed to NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Mengal said the “prevailing situation in Balochistan has compelled me to take this step”.

“Our province has consistently been marginalised and ignored by this House. Each day, we are pushed further against the wall, leaving us with no choice but to reconsider our roles.

“The lack of genuine representation in this Assembly for the people of Balochistan has left voices like mine unable to bring meaningful change.

“It has become increasingly clear that our attempts to speak or protest are met with hostility, our people are either silenced, labelled as traitors, or worse, killed,” Mengal wrote in his letter.

“Under such circumstances, I find it impossible to continue in this capacity, as my presence here no longer serves any purpose for the people I represent,” Mengal wrote.

Requesting the NA speaker to accept his resignation, the BNP-M chief expressed the hope for Balochistan to “be protected and prosper”.

While speaking to the press outside Parliament, Mengal acknowledged that “thousands of voters would be upset with me but I apologise to them.”

He said that the murder of anyone in the country -be it someone who is Urdu-speaking, Pashto, or Baloch – was carried out by the judiciary for not providing justice. “The biggest murderers are politicians who have made a business out of politics,” Mengal said. He said that in a meeting at the Prime Minister House on July 23, he conveyed that if there was no need for him in politics, so he would leave. “It is better to open a shop of pakoras than to do such politics,” Mengal quipped.