Bugti should tweet about his family's ugly history rather than Baloch history

Nawab Bugti with assassinated premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the wedding of Nawabzada Rehan Bugti, father of Brahumdagh Bugti

For lack of a better comparison, a twitter account in the hands of a failed Baloch “nawab” hand is like a bull in the China shop. Or let us ask this way: when does a person find himself in a “golden cage” bored to death?

Answer is when you are only one of the three claimants to a tribal fiefdom that is bigger than Cyprus, or almost as big as Lebanon, or half the land size of Israel, and  you are surrounded by a  half dozen sycophants whose dream in life is to carry your suitcase and that too in Geneva, Switzerland, in stead of half million people to who were God reincarnated, you feel a sense of loss. Even if your wine closet has the best alcohol that you drink every night and puff cigarettes in the manner of a dejected lover of Pakistan—not caring for other family members in the house. you will feel little joy and lot of frustration, if you have no power to hold the witch court, called aas janti, if you cannot decide the innocence of a man by making him walk on coal to see if his feet are burned. If you can kill a person but still get reprieve like your grandfather got then you will neither feel happy nor contented even if some rumors say you own a gold kalashnikov. When you make simple demands to your tormentors in Islamabad that Chaudhry Nisar Husain may come to take you back in an official armyC-132  plane to Pakistan like the one they provided to Nawab Khair Bakhsh marri as a condition to stop blowing up gas pipelines-- and perhaps blow whatever the Punjabi generals want like the rest of your nawab clan--, but the army humiliates you by refusing those small requests and minor demands then you are more frustrated than the beautiful young lady who feels scorned – hell hath had known no fury than a woman scorned.

Much happens in Baloch high society, if there is one. For instance a nawab can marry his aunt and one main intent of that action is just to prove to the world his uncle is impotent.

In a series of tweets, Brahumdagh Bugti, grandson of Nawab Bugti, whose main qualification is just that grandson of the assassinated nawab, shocked the Baloch Diaspora by his uncalled for tweets, whose primary aim was to undermine the political position of Cardiff-exiled Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleman Daud Ahmadzai. Brahumdagh Bugti is also great great grandson of a man who got “Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE)” for licking the boots of British imperialists, Sir Shahbaz Khan Bugti.

In tweets on the 70^th anniversary of the occupation of Balochistan, Brahumdagh Bugti opened a can of worms. “On March 27th 1948, Pakistan attacked and forcefully annexed Kalat, one of the states of #Balochistan. The other states and tribal areas had joined Pakistan before that. It is factually incorrect to 27 March occupation day of entire Balochistan.” His second tweet said, “After the annexation of #Balochistan, our forefathers always tried to adjust within #Pakistan. With all forms of struggle, the entire Baloch leadership, at one time or another, strived for the Baloch rights inside Pakistan.” A thirsd tweet said “It is as a result of constant treatment of #Balochistan as a colony & repeated injustices against the Baloch people by the Pakistani state that Baloch people now demand freedom from Pakistan.” A fourth tweet said, “Therefore, it is completely wrong to call Kalat's forceful annexation with Pakistan as occupation of entire Balochistan and calling for its restoration is equivalent to dividing Balochistan into several states & tribal areas (which were not part of Kalat). It is not acceptable.”

Many of his party colleagues, specially the good Baloch who do not believe in spooning the nawab, made their disgust over his tweets known. However, Bugti stuck to his guns and if to say his tweets were not his personal tweets but of his entire one-man party, he said, "Baloch Republican Party rejects 27 March as occupation of #Balochistan. Our struggle is based on facts and we strongly discourage the use of twisted facts which damage Baloch struggle."

In staed of discouragaing his minions from attacking other party leaders, Brahumdagh Bugti retweeted a tweet of Jawad Baloch of Afshani Gulli, Lyari, who now lives in Germany. “Lies and twisting facts undermines the legitimate movement not the historical facts. Biggest shame is manipulating naked truths to gain political advantage.”

Brahumdagh Bugti also in juvenile fashion retweeted the tweets of one of his other fans, Abdul Nawaz Bugti, son in law of Sher Mohammed Bugti, spokesperson for the Baloch Republican Party. “In my view, the biggest shame is to build a just cause on twisted facts. Nothing can undermine a legitimate movement more than lies.” Abdul Nawaz Bugti also tweeted, “You cannot expect the world to believe your facts and support your struggle against oppression when you misrepresent well-documented historical facts.”

When you are approaching 60 you like to dig facts from the world of your memories so I recall a wedding ceremony many years ago. That was my first face to face meeting with former governor of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. Nawab Bugti was accompanied by his more decent, polite and educated younger brother Ahmednawaz Bugti. I remember in plain sight a high society woman shake hands with nawab bugti but then the nawab did not let the woman’s hand go. Maybe it was three minutes or five minutes, but it looked forever as even the facial expression of the lady conveyed she was not feeling comfortable.

But you could expect anything from Nawab Bugti since he was among the first significant tribal chieftain from Balochistan who proudly shook hands with the villain of history, tuberculosis ridden Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Nawab Bugti was described as a “bloodthirsty character” by alleged MI6 agent Sylvia Matheson, who made no secret she was romantically inclined towards Nawab Bugti.

“About this man you killed,” Sylvia Matheson wrote in her book Tigers of Baluchistan about the Bugti tribe. “Er – I mean why … ?”

“Oh, that! Well, the man annoyed me. I have forgotten what it was about now, but I shot him dead.  I’ve rather a hasty temper you know, but under tribal law of course it wasn’t a capital offence, and in any case as the eldest son of the Chieftain I was perfectly entitled to do as I pleased in our own territory.  We enjoy absolute sovereignty over our people and they accept it as part of their tradition. As a matter of fact my own father was murdered – he was poisoned – and what’s more, I know who did it. It was his half brother  whom I call uncle, and who’s been acting as Regent while I was in College…”

Matheson wote she choked on her tea. “I knew that the chieftain had only just left Aithison College in Lahore, one of the then so-called Princes’ Colleges of India. I knew that he had just come into full ruling powers over 42,000 Bugtis, all agitating for an independent Baluchistan (just as 20 years later they are full of impossible ideals). I knew, too, that while the tribe was notorious for its murders, its robberies and kidnappings, its Chieftains were remarkable for their audacious courage, their heroic accomplishments on the battlefield, their inborn hankering after any kind of a scrap, and their arrogant good looks.”

She wrote she tried to pretend she was used to hearing such tales of violence over the teacups. “So what are you going to do about it?” I asked. “Will you poison your uncle?”

The late Nawab Bugti seemed shocked at the suggestion.

“‘Good heavens no – poisoning’s too good for such a man. Besides, I don’t want a blood feud on my hands, which is what that would mean. No, I shall wait until I get rid of the whole family – discreetly o course’ and he smiled deprecatingly like some Medici nobleman discussing the removal of a tiresome fellow Florentine.’

But of course what Nawab Bugti did in 1973-77 may never have been forgivable had he not thrown the gauntlet at gen Musharraf  30 years later. So Mr Bugti, please forget Balochistan history and concentrate on your family history. You have lots of dirty linen piled up the Aegean stables of your rotten fiefdom.

What I could not understand was your disrespect for me and also for one of the most qualified female workers ever to join your party, Professor Naela Quadri. Last fall at the Palace of Nations, Geneva, I was shocked to see some of your minions trying to stop people from saying hello to Professor Quadri in stead of you inviting her to confer honors on her. Trust me had you given her due respect you might have been in Delhi today with tens of thousands of crazy Indians worshiping your nonsense, not in exile in Geneva surrounded by your family and the larger family of one of your waderas, Sher Mohammed Bugti, and tweeting during unearthly hours as you have nothing better to do.

Let me point out how your tweet can be best described. According to Mohinder Gulati, former World Bank and UN official, and member of the American Friends of Balochistan, "What the Baloch are doing is standing outside and pissing inside while what they need to do is stand inside but piss outside." So please stop pissing inside Baloch history. You are a thorough gentleman.