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Balakh Sher MazariIn 1993 a protracted power struggle between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan played out as Pakistan's two leading politicians maneuvered each other out of power. This period of behind-the-scenes struggle was described by a Pakistani daily as a "Silent Revolution" and was watched with some concern by the international community, which feared that Pakistan could once again fall under military rule. On April 18, 1993, the power struggle seemed to be resolved when President Ishaq Khan, exercising the extraordinary constitutional powers afforded the president by the Eighth Amendment, dismissed the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. For the second time, Ghulam Ishaq Khan had invoked the Eighth Amendment to bring down an elected government. The charges of corruption and mismanagement of the economy that he leveled against Nawaz Sharif were almost identical to those he had earlier brought against Benazir Bhutto in 1990. President Ishaq Khan appointed Balakh Sher Mazari. In His short lived career as PM his Foreign Policy remained his strong point and probably the only efficient act on his part as Prime Minister was to attend the OIC. Concerning the struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir the Prime Minister stated that they had been denied their right to self-determination, and called on the OIC to adopt resolute steps to condemn Indian atrocities and violations of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, and to condemn its continued occupation of that territory. He pointed out that the unending repression had failed to break the will of the Kashmiri people for liberation from India's illegal occupation. On the question of Palestine,Mr. Mazari stated that Israel must fully implement resolutions 242 and 338 of the U.N. Security Council and that all the Palestinian people be allowed to return to their homeland. On the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina,Mr. Mazari stated that Pakistan had sponsored a Security Council resolution imposing additional sanctions on Serbia. He sincerely hoped that the Conference would respond generously to Bosnia-Herzegovina's needs. Mr. Mazari also called on the OIC to strongly condemn Armenia's attack on Azerbaijan and called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Azerbaijan and the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On the issue of Cyprus, the Prime Minister stated that Pakistan supported a bizonal and bicommunal federal structure based on the equality of the Turkish and Greek communities. Mr. Mazari also called on the Islamic world to support the people of Afghanistan in this period of political transition. On the issue of terrorism,Mr. Mazari stated that Pakistan is committed to combating international terrorism, and called on the OIC to condemn strongly all forms of terrorism. The Prime Minister of Pakistan also called on the OIC to protect the rights and welfare of Muslim minorities.He also stated that many OIC states have a stake in combatting racism and xenophobia in Europe, that is affecting Muslims living there. On May 26, 1993, the Supreme Court voted that Ishaq Khan's dissolution of the National Assembly and his dismissal of the prime minister were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court's action was a sharp rebuke of Ishaq Khan's heavy-handed exercise of presidential powers and was widely hailed as a victory for the advocates of democratization. Yet, although the Supreme Court was able to reinstate the Nawaz Sharif government, the status quo ante was not restored, and the struggle between the president and the prime minister continued unabated, making the pursuit of regular government workings impossible. Mazari-Bugti dispute This started over the claim of Bugti tribe on the sand and gravel situated in the Mazari area which were to be used in the construction of 110-kilometre-long piece of Indus Highway passing through the Mazari area as well. Balakh Sher Mazari has called on the Government repeatedly for the demarcation of the Punjab-Balochistan border, a meeting was held in Kashmore, Sindh, with the then federal petroleum minister Anwar Saifullah in the chair in early 1990s. Punjab chief secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa also attended the meeting as provincial home secretary. The meeting, however, remained inconclusive. With the start of work on Indus Highway in 1993 in the area, Turkish and Japanese contractors started paying royalty to the Mazaris for sand and gravel which frustrated the Bugtis and their associates in the Mazari Tribe. The Bugtis started armed assaults in the Punjab. Balakh Sher Mazari complained that so far 37 people, including a senior police official, had been killed in the Bugtis attacks and more than 87 people had either injured or kidnapped since 1994. Besides, around 20 tractors and several other vehicles had also been snatched from the Mazaris and the people of other clans by the Bugtis. He said on the one hand the Rajanpur police had been badly failed to check Bugti intruders in the Punjab, while on the other they had started picking up Mazari notables without giving any reason. Mr Mazari alleged that the arrests of Mazaris were in fact politically-motivated at the behest of MNA Nasrullah Dareshak and Punjab Assembly deputy speaker Shaukat Mazari. The Mazari chief regretted that the Balochistan government was patronizing the Bugtis but the Punjab government was paying no attention to their requests on the grounds that it was infighting between the Baloch tribes. Rajanpur District The district has three tehsils, Rajanpur, Jampur and Rohjhan. The district also houses Fazilpur, Kot Mithan, Omarkot, Murghai, Miranpur, Shahmali, Mominpur, Hajipur, Lalgarh, Noorpur, Bokhara, Dajal, Harrand, Tibi Lundan and Lundi Saidan. The Mazari tribe is largest in the area followed by the Dareshaks. The Legharis of Choti have a strong clout in the district, and have succeeded in winning the district nazim slot in Rajanpur recently in 2003. Apart from this, Khosas, Khetrans, Lunds, Gorchanis, Qaiseranis and Buzdars are also residing in the district. The settlers form around 15-20 percent of the total population with Rajputs, Arains and Jats in greater proportion. The settlers are generally the supporters of the PPP, PML-N and the rightwing parties. Currently, Sardar Balakh Sher Mazari is trying to muster up the settlers' support, besides his own and Gorchanis'.The Election Commission of Pakistan had disqualified 35 former senators, 256 former members of the National Assembly and 17 government officials from contesting the October 2002 elections after declaring them defaulters.Mir Balakh Sher Mazari was one of them.According to the Election Comission outstanding dues against him for using federal lodges were Rs25,557. Seraiki Belt For sometime now he has been advocating that Seraiki areas did not get water as it was promised to them at the time of the construction of Chashma Barrage, CJ and TP link canals and other mega water projects in Punjab on the pretext that there was no water in the system. He recently posed questions to the government if there was no water for Seraiki areas, how come the Greater Thal Canal was being constructed now? He claims that the GTC was being constructed because retired army officers, higher civilian bureaucrats and some notables have been allotted land in its command area. That will cause another influx into the Seraiki areas. External Links
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