Balochistan Assembly sets aside resolution to abolish Sardari system

The Balochistan Assembly on Monday set aside a resolution seeking the immediate abolition of the Sardari system in the province and a ban on the use of the titles Sardar and Nawab in writing and speech, Dawn reported.

The resolution was on the agenda of the session in Quetta and was moved by Jamaat-i-Islami MPA Hidayatur Rehman Baloch, according to the report. It sought an end to the hereditary chieftainship arrangement in the province and a bar on the two titles being used in correspondence or public address.

Speaker retired Captain Abdul Khaliq Achakzai told the house that a review of the available legal position had been carried out and that legislation abolishing the system was already passed in 1976, Dawn reported. The Speaker's position, as the report described it, was that the existing statute applies to the whole country, and the resolution was therefore disposed of rather than carried forward for fresh legislation.

No new law followed Monday's proceedings. Dawn's report did not set out the text of the 1976 law the Speaker cited, nor did it record any vote on the resolution.

A separate report circulated by the news aggregator Ua.News, citing Dawn, said tribal leaders in Balochistan opposed the abolition of the Sardari system. That report did not name the leaders, say how many were involved, or describe what they had done or said beyond their opposition to abolition.

The two accounts describe the same episode from different ends: the assembly dealing with a member's resolution on the floor, and opposition to abolition from outside the house. Neither report carried a named opponent of the measure, and neither gave figures for support or opposition within the assembly.

The Sardari system is a hereditary tribal chieftainship structure in Balochistan, in which authority and often landholding pass down within a family line. Calls to abolish it and to restrict the use of the titles Sardar and Nawab have been raised in the province's politics before, typically by parties arguing the arrangement concentrates power and resources in a small number of families.

The resolution's disposal means the assembly took no step on Monday towards fresh legislation on the matter, with the chair holding that the question is already covered by federal law dating to 1976. It was not immediately clear from the reports whether Mr Baloch or his party intend to press the issue again in a later sitting.