In Search of Solutions

by Adnan Aamir

In Search of Solu­tions is the title of the auto­bi­og­ra­phy of Baba-e-Balochis­tan Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizen­jo, one of the great­est politi­cians in the his­to­ry of Balochis­tan. The book is based on per­son­al notes about his life and polit­i­cal career which were edit­ed by his for­mer polit­i­cal sec­re­tary, B. M. Kut­ty, and pub­lished in the form of a book in 2009. From the pro­lif­ic polit­i­cal career of Mir Bizen­jo which start­ed in 1939 and con­tin­ued for 50 years till his death in 1989, In Search of Solu­tions cov­ers events from his child­hood till the polit­i­cal devel­op­ments of 1973. Dur­ing his 50 years polit­i­cal career, he spent at least 10 years in prison. His auto­bi­og­ra­phy not only pro­vides an insight into var­i­ous polit­i­cal issues, it also uncov­ers some very impor­tant facts which were pre­vi­ous­ly unknown.

Mir Bizen­jo writes in his book that he met Pres­i­dent Yahya Khan before 1970 Gen­er­al Elec­tions to dis­cuss some aspects of elec­tions in Balochis­tan. In this meet­ing Yahya Khan told him that “Soon­er or lat­er, East Pak­istan will have to be ampu­tat­ed. And if at all that is to hap­pen, why let them suck our blood for two or three more years.”¹ This means that Pres­i­dent Yahya Khan was not inter­est­ed in keep both wings of Pak­istan togeth­er way before the Elec­tions and the pre­ced­ing civ­il war. This is a very impor­tant insight into the men­tal­i­ty of our estab­lish­ment which was pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for the breakup of Pak­istan. On 14th March 1971, Mir Bizen­jo and Wali Khan went to Dha­ka to con­vince Sheikh Mujib to nego­ti­ate with Yahya Khan. Mujib agreed and talks between Yahya and him start­ed in Dha­ka. After some days while talks were still going on, Yahya met Mir Bizen­jo and said “If your friend Mujib doesn’t behave, my army knows how to shoot their way through.”² Mir Bizen­jo asked Yahya if he thinks using force will solve this prob­lem. Yahya strange­ly answered in neg­a­tive. This means that Pres­i­dent Yahya was not very keen on solv­ing the issue through dia­logue and at the same time he was also not sure about the suc­cess of mil­i­tary oper­a­tion. The inabil­i­ty of Gen­er­al Yahya to reach a con­clu­sive deci­sion cost Pak­istan heav­i­ly.

Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizen­jo took oath of Gov­er­nor of Balochis­tan on 28th April 1972. Zul­fiqar Ali Bhut­to, then Pres­i­dent of Pak­istan, cre­at­ed all sorts of prob­lems for the Nation­al Awa­mi Par­ty (NAP)’s gov­ern­ment in Balochis­tan and its Gov­er­nor, Mir Bizen­jo, till dis­missal of both on 15th Feb­ru­ary 1973. One inter­est­ing inci­dent quot­ed in this book relates to the arrival of Princess Ashraf Pehalvi, sis­ter of Shah of Iran, to Quet­ta. NAP gov­ern­ment had assumed pow­er for only two weeks when Z.A Bhut­to asked it to host a for­eign dig­ni­tary. This was a delib­er­ate attempt by Bhut­to, accord­ing to Mir Bizen­jo, to prove that NAP gov­ern­ment is incom­pe­tent. On 19th May 1972, Princess Ashraf land­ed in Quet­ta and NAP gov­ern­ment despite all odds man­aged to han­dle the issue well. Z.A Bhut­to and his ally Qayyum Khan had brought their sup­port­ers along with them to Quet­ta. Pak­istan Peo­ples Par­ty (PPP) work­ers who had come to Quet­ta remained low-pro­file but Qayyum Khan’s men played hav­oc in Quet­ta. They marched in city with Guns, shout­ed slo­gans against NAP gov­ern­ment and opened fire on NAP sup­port­ers. This result­ed in death of Mohsin Kasi, a rick­shaw dri­ver, who was a NAP sup­port­er. NAP sup­port­ers protest­ed this grue­some act and Mir Bizen­jo ordered to arrest all the goons which Qayyum Khan had brought with him. Hear­ing this, fed­er­al min­is­ters asked Bhut­to to do some­thing to pre­vent the arrest of Qayyum’s Men. Bhut­to told them “I Know Bizen­jo. Bet­ter accept his demand and sur­ren­der the men. Oth­er option is that I ask army to take con­trol of Quet­ta city (and sack Bizen­jo) which is the worst thing to do, in the pres­ence of for­eign dig­ni­taries.”³ This proves that Mir Bizen­jo had a rep­u­ta­tion of being a man of his words and even Bhut­to had no option but to respect his judg­ment.

Today Sar­dari sys­tem is the most com­mon argu­ment for those who tend to defend fed­er­al government’s high­hand­ed­ness against Balochis­tan. How­ev­er this book quotes a res­o­lu­tion passed in Balochis­tan Assem­bly which blasts this notion. Nawab Khair Baksh Mar­ri moved a res­o­lu­tion in Balochis­tan Assem­bly rec­om­mend­ing the abo­li­tion of Sar­dari sys­tem. Sar­dar Ataullah Men­gal, then Chief Min­is­ter, sec­ond­ed the motion. How­ev­er such sys­tem has been a sub­ject of fed­er­al juris­dic­tion and the gov­ern­ment of Z.A Bhut­to did not abol­ish the Sar­dari sys­tem for his own vest­ed inter­ests.⁴ This means that against the com­mon notions, the polit­i­cal lead­er­ship of Balochis­tan did want to end the Sar­dari sys­tem but the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is keen on retain­ing it. The rea­son is sim­ple, fed­er­al gov­ern­ment uses the sup­port of crooked Sar­dars to con­trol the province while keep­ing the gen­uine rep­re­sen­ta­tives of peo­ple away from pow­er. Even today the same treat­ment is met­ed out to the real rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Balochis­tan.

In Search of Solu­tions is a very use­ful book for the stu­dents of his­to­ry and those who are inter­est­ed in know­ing the real­i­ty about Balochis­tan. The book is most­ly based on the anec­do­tal nar­ra­tive of Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizen­jo but oth­er sources can be cor­rob­o­rat­ed to con­firm these facts. Mir Bizen­jo was a true demo­c­ra­t­ic politi­cian who always believed in nego­ti­a­tions. That’s why his detrac­tors often mocked him by using the title of Baba-e-Muza­kara­hat (Father of Dia­logue) for him. Famous Jour­nal­ist, Selig H. Har­ri­son, writes in his book, In Afghanistan’s Shad­ow; “He is one of the ablest politi­cians of Pak­istan and could have played a major role in Islam­abad but for his Baloch iden­ti­ty and his com­mit­ment to the Baloch cause.”⁵

_____________________
¹ Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizen­jo, In search of Solu­tions 2009, p 148.
² Ibid, p153
³ Ibid, p 171
⁴ Ibid p 173
⁵ Ibid, p 218

(Adnan Aamir is a Free­lance writer and Blog­ger. He tweets at @iAdnanAamir)