Last Sunday morning, I left Quetta early. When our vehicle reached the outskirts of Quetta, near the Sona Khan checkpost we found out that the road had been closed. A TTP suicide bomber had attacked the security forces. We missed the deadly blast by a mere five minutes. Later, our driver managed to find another narrow road out of Quetta to the National Highway and we were on our journey to Wadh, the final resting place of Sardar Attaullah Mengal.

It was a four-hour journey to Mengal House in Wadh. Hundreds of cars had been parked outside. There were some informal security gates. After crossing those we entered a large tent- shelter where people had gathered to offer condolences for Sardar Attaullah Mengal, who had passed away on September 2. At the centre of the gathering was Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the former chief minister, son and political heir of Attaullah Mengal. He was visibly sad but trying his best to maintain his composure.

Sardar Attaullah Mengal was the last surviving leader among the four pillars of modern-day Baloch nationalist politics, the others being Ghous Bakksh Bizenjo (died 1989), Nawab Akbar Bugti (died 2006) and Nawab Khair Baksh Marri (died 2014). Attaullah Mengal was born in 1929 in Wadh but spent his early years in Karachi. He was made sardar of his tribe in 1954 at just 25 years of age.

Initially, he kept his distance from politics. An incident in the mid-1950s changed his mind. According to BBC Urdu, this happened when Attaullah Mengal was hosting a delegation of senior officials of the federal government at his home town. He was accompanying the delegation on his own vehicle. At one point, he took the lead so as to guide the convoy. Later, he was told that an assistant of the prime minister, who was in one of the cars, had felt insulted and wanted Mengal to apologise to him. Mengal wondered why he was being treated like that on his own land. It has been speculated that it was after this incident that he decided to enter politics. Eventually, he became something of a ‘nightmare’ for the federal government.

Mengal started his political career by winning the elections and becoming a member of the West Pakistan Assembly in 1956. He was re-elected in 1962. The speeches he made on the floor of the assembly about grievances of the people of Balochistan are still as relevant.

In the 1960s, Attaullah Mengal became a staunch opponent of the One Unit system. For this, he faced the wrath of the dictatorial regime. Ayub Khan removed Attaullah from his position as chief of his tribe and appointed his cousin, Karam Khan Mengal, as the new sardar. However, the decision was not popular. Ten days, Karam Mengal was murdered in his sleep. Attaullah Mengal was arrested and accused of murder. However, he was released later as the government failed to convict him. Attaullah Mengal later joined the National Awami Party (NAP).

In the 1970 elections, Attaullah Mengal was elected to the Balochistan Assembly. The NAP then forged an alliance with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and Attaullah became the first chief minister of Balochistan on May 1, 1972. During his 288-day term, the government established the Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, the Bolan Medical College, and the Khuzdar Engineering College – the first engineering and medical education institutes in the province.

During the last few years of his life, he had stopped giving interviews. “[Atta Ullah Mengal] used to say that journalists could no longer publish [or broadcast] the truth he had to share and that he could not lie just so he remained quotable,” says Zulfiqar.

The PPP government at the Centre was hostile and it was alleged that the Mengal government had kicked out Punjabi teachers from Balochistan and “destroyed the education system”.

“This was an obfuscation of facts that was accepted by many people,” says journalist Shahzada Zulfiqar.

“The truth is that when the East Pakistan government collapsed, its employees hailing from West Pakistan were added to a surplus pool. Many of those employees were late allocated to the Balochistan government, which had meagre resources and was facing the problem of severe unemployment. Mengal sent these employees back to accommodate local people in the jobs,” says Zulfiqar.

He adds that other settlers from the Punjab who were employed by the government were not touched by Mengal’s provincial government.

On February 13, Mengal’s government was dismissed on flimsy charges of a plot to overthrow the federal government using weapons reported to have been discovered at the Iraqi embassy. Later, it was concluded that the weapons discovered at the Iraqi embassy were meant for Iranian rebels and not Baloch nationalists. In March 1973, Attaullah Mengal, along with many other NAP leaders, was thrown into jail. They were later tried at the Hyderabad jail. Mengal was released from prison in 1978 after Zia ul Haq toppled the Bhutto regime in a military coup.

Mengal never ran for public office again. He did, however, continue his political struggle, often facing severe hardship on account of it. In 1976, his eldest son Asad Mengal went missing from Karachi. He has long been presumed dead but the circumstances of his death and his burial place remain obscure.

Attaullah Mengal went into exile in London in the early 1980s. During this exile, he formed the Sindhi Baloch Pashtun Front (SBPF). He returned to Pakistan in 1995 and formed the Balochistan National Party in 1996. His son, Akhtar Mengal became chief minister of Balochistan from the BNP platform in 1997. However, like his father, he did not survive long in the office.

After Gen Pervez Musharraf staged a military coup, Attaullah Mengal became the founding president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM). He struggled against the Musharraf regime from this platform till June 2006 when he announced retirement from active politics. In 2008, he declined an offer from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to run for president.

During the last few years of his life, he had stopped giving interviews. “[Atta Ullah Mengal] used to say that journalists could no longer publish [or broadcast] the truth he had to share and that he could not lie just so he remained quotable,” says Zulfiqar.

Attaullah Mengal used to lament that it was very hard for a principled person in Pakistan to wield significant power as the political system was crooked, recounts Zulfiqar.

The awareness of their political and citizenship rights among Baloch people today owes itself to a large measure to the political struggle of Sardar Attaullah Mengal. This is the political legacy he is leaving behind.

The writer is a journalist and researcher. He can be reached on twitter: @iAdnanAamir.