The Balochistan National Party or Balochistan National Party (Mengal) (Urdu: بلوچستان نيشنل پارٹی; Balūcistān Nēśanal Pārtī ) is a political party in Balochistan, Pakistan. BNP believes in more provincial rights and greater autonomy for Baluchistan province through peaceful and democratic struggle.
Later, Bizenjo formed the Pakistan National Party or PNP after differences arose between him and Wali Khan over the Kabul Revolution (he supported the revolution while Wali Khan was against it). Nasir joined PNP and became the President of its Balochistan wing while Mengal went into exile in London.[citation needed]
In 1996, Mengal returned to Pakistan and formed the Balochistan National Party.[5]
BNP Government
BNP swept the 1997 elections and was able to form a coalition government in Balochistan with Mengal's son, Akhtar Mengal as the Chief Minister This government did not last long, as differences began arising between the Balochistan Provincial Government and the Federal Government.[citation needed]
1998–2009
After the dismissal of their first government, BNP hasn't taken part in any elections. In 2002, the party didn't compete in the elections in protest of General Pervez Musharraf's October 1999 military coup which allowed the pro-military religious alliance to win almost all the moderate and nationalist constituencies. Though a few members of the party did take part in the elections independently. One of these members got elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, one to the Senate of Pakistan and two to the Provincial Assembly i.e. Mir Akbar Mengal and Mir Akhtar Hussain Langove.
In 2006, Bugti was killed by the Pakistani Army. BNP had vehemently criticized the government when the operation in Balochistan had been launched[6] and after Bugti's death all four of its independently elected representatives resigned from their seats of the National and Provincial Assemblies.[7]
In December 2006, Akhtar Mengal was arrested for allegedly ordering his security guards to beat up secret service personnel. Mengal maintained that these secret service officials had tried to kidnap his children as they returned from school and as a result, the security guards had beaten them. During his trial, according to Iqbal Haider, secretary-general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, "Mr Mengal was brought into the courtroom and shoved into an iron cage with bars all around that stood in a corner away from his counsel.”[8] Mengal was released in 2008, after the Pakistan Peoples Party government came in power, after spending almost one and a half year in jail.
After Akhtar Mengal's arrest, the rest of the BNP leadership was also imprisoned mainly in MPO cases. On December 2, Sajid Tareen was arrested from his chambers,[9]Habib Jalib Baloch, Mir Akhtar Hussain Langove and Akbar Mengal were also arrested the same day.[10]Jahanzeb Jamaldini was also put under arrest in December. Then, on January 3, 2007, the acting Chief of BNP, Mir Noor-ud-din Mengal was also arrested along with other activists while they were on their way to meet imprisoned workers of BNP in Khuzdar.[11]
