QUETTA, Aug 24: Tribal elders and political leaders have rejected the Dera Bugti gathering and described it as a government-sponsored drama. The Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleman Daud, said that the Dera Bugti gathering had no importance as far as tribal traditions were concerned.

“It could be considered a jirga of a class of Bugti tribesmen,” he said, adding that different quarters were talking about the abolition of a tribal system but with the passage of time it was becoming stronger, instead of becoming weak. “A tribal system also exists among Sindhis, Pushtoons and even among Punjabis,” the Khan of Kalat said, adding that a tribal system could not be abolished through such jirgas. He said the government was involved in all the wrong things happening in Balochistan.

He said that he neither attended the Dera Bugti gathering now was he invited to it.

Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, the chief of Sarawan, said that he had been issuing repeated warnings that the government and its agencies were interfering in the tribal affairs of Balochistan.

“Baloch do not like such interference in their tribal affairs,” he said.

He said that neither a tribal system could be abolished nor the support and love of the people of Balochistan to their tribal elders could be weakened through such gatherings. He said that the government and its agencies were working on the policy of divide and rule. He said that he condemned such policies of the government at all levels.

The secretary-general of the National Party, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, said the methodology the government had adopted for abolishing the tribal system in Balochistan was ridiculous.

“The tribal system cannot be ended with a single announcement,” he said, adding that no sardar could be ousted by issuing a presentation order.