Akhtar Mengal

Akhtar Mengal (born 6 October 1962) is a Pakistani politician from Balochistan who is the chairman of Balochistan National Party (Mengal). He is also serving as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since February 2024. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Balochistan between 1997 and 1998 and later as a member of the Balochistan Provincial Assembly. Mengal also served as a member of National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till August 2023.

Early life
Mengal was born on 6 October 1962 in Wadh, West Pakistan (now, Balochistan, Pakistan) to the former Chief Minister of Balochistan Ataullah Mengal. Mengal has two sons, Gurgain Mengal, Brahem Mengal and a daughter, Banari Mengal.

Political career
Mengal returned to Pakistan on 25 March 2013 after ending four years of self exile in Dubai to participate in the 2013 general elections. His party only has two seats in the 51-member provincial assembly. One held by Mengal and the other by Hamal Kalmati, who represents Gwadar. Two candidates of the BNP, Esa Noori and Raouf Mengal, won National Assembly seats from the Makran coastal region and Khuzdar, respectively. Akhtar Mengal took oath as a member of National Assembly of Pakistan on 13 August 2018.

Arrest and release
Akhtar Mengal was arrested in September 2006, along with around 700 other political workers, in a government crackdown in Balochistan. He was held because he was planning a long march against President Pervez Musharraf's military rule. Mengal was released on May 9, 2008 and all charges against him were dropped by the Government of Sindh. The Balochistan government withdrew all cases, including those of sedition, against Mengal.

On 25 March 2013, Mengal returned to Pakistan from Dubai to take part in the general elections on 11 May 2013.

Uneasy relationship with the Baloch insurgency
Akhtar Mengal has been historically criticised by the Baloch insurgents as well as the security establishment. In an interview in 2013, he lamented that, “The Baloch militants consider me a traitor while the security establishment also treats me as an enemy." He is an elder of various such influential families who have their members on both sides of the political divide. Currently a part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (a 13-party coalition currently in power at the federal level), the association of his brother and nephews with the Baloch Liberation Army has long been an obstacle to his entry into the mainstream national politics. Javed Mengal (brother) and Nooruddin Mengal and Bhawal Mengal (nephews) have allegedly been involved in armed militancy in the restive province of Balochistan. However, Akhtar Mengal has condemned the insurgents and publicly called for a political solution to the myriad problems in the province.