MULTAN: Efforts are afoot at the official level to bring Mazari chief Mir Balakh Sher and Bugti leader Nawab Akbar together to reconcile differences between their tribes. Clashes between the two tribes have been a permanent source of trouble along the inter-provincial border.

But it is a million-dollar question as to who will, or can, convene such a reconciliatory meeting between the two tribal chiefs who are not even on talking terms.

When this correspondent talked to members of the leading families of the Mazari and Bugti tribes, they said would not attend any jirga if it was called by the government. Tribal sources said both the Mazari and Bugti chiefs had ‘big egos’ and no one would take the initiative for peace.

They said Marri chief Sardar Khair Bux could play a role for peace between Mazari and Bugti because he was also on good terms with the chiefs of the warring tribes, but he himself was occupied with intra-tribal disputes of his own clan in Kohlu agency over the issue of coal mines.

They said only respected and neutral personality like Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan could influence both Mir Balakh Sher and Nawab Bugti.

About Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who himself is a Baloch elder, they were of the unanimous view that Nawab Bugti was unlikely to be impressed by the premier’s intervention. “The first quality of a mediator is that he should enjoy esteem with both rival parties,” they added.

Before the British Raj, the Khan of Kalat used to convene a ‘Shahi Jirga’ of Baloch tribes once a year which served as a forum to resolve tribal conflicts.

In the colonial period, the British introduced the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) and jirgas were called under these laws in tribal areas where the normal Criminal Procedure Codes could not maintain law and order.

It was British political agent Sandeman, of Dera Ghazi Khan who strengthened the tribal chiefs of the Suleman range, including the Bugti, the Mazari, the Leghari and the Marri, primarily to rule the wild tribesmen through their chiefs and provide the British army with safe passage through the mountains to advance farther to conquer Balochistan.

The ‘Shahi Jirga’ was named ‘grand jirga’ under the British and the governor of Punjab was used to grace the occasion, usually held in the cool environs of Fort Munro, which was part of the Leghari domain.

After partition, the ‘grand Jirga’ tradition faded out, though deputy commissioners used to convene gatherings of the tribes in their respective districts until recently. But, a ruling of the Supreme Court of Pakistan outlawed jirgas in the mid-1990s, ordering implementation on a uniform law throughout the country.

Abolition of the inter-tribal jirga system resulted in growing tribal clashes on the joint border of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan with no forum to resolve disputes while the toothless offices of deputy commissioners/district magistrates became ineffective in maintaining law and order.

As a last resort, the commissioners of Dera Ghazi Khan, Sibi and Larkana divisions tried to call an unofficial inter- provincial jirga of Baloch tribes in 2000, but failed because none of the chiefs of the major clans agreed to attend.

However, the commissioners, DIGs of police, DCs and SPs of the divisions and districts concerned held a number of meetings in Fort Munro, Sui and Jacobabad until December, 2000. But the powers to subjugate the wild hill tribes were no more with the offices of the colonial era.

An official who attended these meetings told Dawn that the Mazari-Bugti clashes had often been on top of the agenda as these were a source of unrest in all three provinces.