The Balochistan National Party, led by Sardar Akhtar Mengal, had established its credentials as the most populist political party of Balochistan attracting a larger section of the local population in all parts of Balochistan. This excludes some northern parts of Balochistan or the annexed territories from Afghanistan as most of the Baloch people did not consider it as part of Baloch Mainland. For this reasons, the Party had never nominated its candidates from the annexed territory of Balochistan.

In different phases, Sardar Akhtar Mengal planned and visited different parts of Balochistan with some intervals and addressed massive public meeting which were unmatched and unparallel in the modern political history of Balochistan. He started his massive political campaign from Quetta and he stunned the political observers and Balochistan watchers by attracting larger crowd which normal political forces never think of. The public meeting in Quetta was considered the biggest in the modern history and he and his party demonstrated its political power and strength in the Baloch capital of Quetta.

Similarly Mr. Mengal demonstrated his support from the masses by holding even bigger meetings in Mastung, Kalat and Khuzdar proving that he is master of political minds of the people in Central Balochistan. No party can match its popularity and influence in Central Balochistan, the heartland of Baloch national movement for political and economic rights for the past many decades.

The Pakistani establishment tried to use the power and influence of JUI and its Amir who is a coalition partner of the Federal Government and endorsing the policies of the Federal Government in all parts of Pakistan. JUI held a big meeting. But it was attended by people from other places, including remote places of Zhob, Loralai, Qilla Saifullah and Qilla Abdullah to give a misleading impression that local people participated. Local people in Khuzdar confirmed that the Afghan refugees and illegal immigrants attended the JUI public meeting in large number. Overwhelming majority of the seminary students were brought to make the meeting bigger and larger.

It was the starting point of the political campaign launched by the BNP President, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, which was followed by huge public meetings in Turbat, Panjgur and Gwadar. By all standards, the public meetings were huge in Mekran in which there was a massive participation of Baloch women welcoming the nationalist leader. The meetings in Mekran, mainly in Turbat and Panjgur that were earlier considered police base of the National Party, had changed the colour and political landscape of Mekran making it a stronghold of the BNP.

Some observers believed that 30 months rule of NP as Chief Minister or leader of the coalition parties proved to be deadly in political sense and the party lost its support in a big way and that was the reason for holding much bigger meeting by the BNP.  By all means, the party snatched the Mekran constituency from the National Party by demonstrating its strength among the people by holding much bigger public meetings than the NP in recent months, particularly during the current coalition Government.

Another phase of political initiated by Sardar Mengal, targeted Naushki, Dalbandin, Kharan and other areas in Rakhshan region which is considered resource rich and future treasure of Balochistan. The public meetings in Naushki, Dalbandin and Kharan were also massive attended by tens of thousands of people. Sardar Akhtar Mengal was given a big welcome and thousands of people joined the party on such occasions making BNP the most powerful political party of Balochistan.

The last phase of political campaign was proved to be more crucial and Sardar Akhtar Mengal was involved in politicking in its real sense and met the important political personalities, including the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali and score of local leaders of public fame mustering their support for his political stand on national issues, mainly on Gwadar, census, political autonomy and other pressing issues.

His meeting with Zafarullah Jamali was more important in the sense that he was the man who sacrificed his Prime Ministership by refusing to launch military operation in Balochistan and particularly against Shaheed Akbar Bugti. He preferred to resign than agree with the General Pervez Musharraf who was wanted to kill all his political opponents, including Bugti and Benazir Bhutto.

Most of the meetings with eminent political leaders of Naseerabad region were one on one meeting and details of those meetings are not available. However, they were all related to the recent political developments in Balochistan discussing the ways and means to take Balochistan out from the present impasse.