Mir Gul Khan Nasir

Gul Khan Naseer ( ur, ), also known as Malek o-Sho'arā Balochistan ( ur, ; 14 May 1914 – 6 December 1983) was a politician, poet, historian, and journalist from Balochistan, Pakistan. Born on 14 May 1914 in Noshki, Gul Khan Naseer was at the forefront of the Baloch nationalist movement and was most active between 1935 and 1980. His father's name was Habib Khan and he belonged to the Paindzai family of the Zagar Mengal sub branch of the Mengal tribe. Gul Khan's mother "Bibi Hooran" belonged to the Rakhshani branch of the Bolazai Badini.

Education

Gul Khan Nasir studied until Fourth Grade in his village. For further studies he was sent to Quetta where he was admitted to the Government Sandeman High School. He subsequently went to Lahore in order to pursue a higher education at Islamia College Lahore. During his second year at Islamia College, a piece of coal went into his eye, causing him to leave education and return to Quetta.

Lahore was then the hub of knowledge and political and social activities. The political, cultural, social and literary movements in Lahore made quite an impression on Nasir. When he returned to Quetta, Balochistan was split into several parts, namely, The Chief Commissioner's Province and The Balochistani princely states. The province of Balochistan was under direct British rule while the Balochistani States was indirectly controlled by the British through the Tribal Chiefs (sardars) and rulers, whom they had bought. In this situation the rulers of Balochistan were in no hurry to make the state progress and better the lives of its inhabitants. Because of these conditions, Nasir stepped into politics in order to join the other leaders who were fighting to liberate the people of Balochistan from the Imperialist powers.

Boxing

When he went to Lahore, Nasir saw the students taking part in different sports so he joined the college football team. He also learned how to box.

"Boxing helped Gul Khan Nasir get out of many a tight spot in his life" – Aqil Khan Mengal

He participated in boxing tournaments. In the All India Universities Boxing Championship, he was the runner up. At this tournament he broke his nose.

Kalat State National Party

After the ban on " Anjuman-e-Islamia Ryasat-e-Kalat," on 5 February 1937 Baloch youth got together again and formed a new political organization, Kalat State National Party (KSNP). Party members elected Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd as president, Mir Gul Khan Nasir as vice president, and Malik Faiz Muhammad Yousafzai became the Secretary General. The Kalat State National Party was affiliated with the Indian National Congress. It played an important role in curbing the power and influence of the Sardars Tribal Chieftains, fought for the abolition of cruel and unusual taxes imposed on the poor by the Sardars, and campaigned for the establishment of a democratically elected Parliament fashioned after the British Parliament upon the independence of the State of Kalat. The KSNP had several ups and downs with the Khan of Kalat. At first most of the top leaders of the party such as Abdul Aziz Kurd, Faiz Muhammad Yoyusafzai, Gul Khan Nasir, Abdul Rahim Khwajakhel, Aalijah Ghaus Bakhsh Gazgi etc. were serving as government officials. In 1939, during an annual session of KSNP in which Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo was also taking part as a representative of a Karachi-based political party, some thugs sent by the local sardars tried to disrupt the rally by firing at the participants. After that all the members of the Party who had government jobs resigned and were arrested. This was the incident which caused Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo to join the KSNP. After some time the Khan reconciled with the KSNP leaders and re-employed them as government officials. Once again tensions rose between the KSNP and the Khan of Kalat and this time the KSNP leadership resigned for good never to work as government servants again. Paul Titus and Nina Swidler in their article "Knights Not Pawns: Ethno-Nationalism and Regional Dynamics in Post-Colonial Balochistan" write:

The Khan attempted to play off nationalist and sardari differences by maintaining his authority as the traditional head of the Balochi tribes while appealing to the leaders of the Balochi nation. This was not always possible, and by 1939 the activities of the nationalists had so antagonized the sardars and British that they pressured the Khan to declare KSNP illegal in Kalat State. The ban on the party was lifted after World War II, though antagonism between the sardars and nationalists remained. In March 1946, for example the Balochi activist poet Gul Khan Nasir was expelled from Kalat State following complaints to the agent to the Governor-General in Balochistan from the Badini, Jamaldini and Zagar Mengal sardars. They claimed that Nasir and other activists had created disturbances in the town of Noshki by making speeches charging that the sardars were appropriating and selling local residents' wheat rations.

Muslim League

After Kalat's accession to Pakistan in 1948, the KSNP broke up. The Khan of Kalat, Ahmedyar Khan joined the Muslim League after the accession but was hesitant to do it alone so he sent Mir Ajmal Khan to Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo and Gul Khan Nasir to persuade them into joining the Muslim League with the Khan. Both Gul Khan and Ghaus Bakhsh thought that joining the ML would provide them the platform they needed to raise the voice for Kalat's rights. But within days they realized that they would never be able to achieve what they wanted while they were in the Muslim League. So they left the ML never to return to it ever again.

Usthman Gal

In the years that followed, Pakistan went through many changes. In 1954 the Communist Party was banned in Pakistan and then in 1955, all the provinces of West Pakistan were merged into one unit. In these conditions the Baloch ethnic nationalist politicians under the leadership of Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, Ghaus Bakhsh Gazgi Mengal, Gul Khan Nasir, Agha Abdul Karim Khan (the brother of the Khan of Kalat), Mohammad Hussain Anqa and Qadir Bux Nizamani formed the "Usthman Gal" which is Balochi for "The People's Party". Agha Abdul Karim was elected as the President of this party.

Pakistan National Party

In 1956, the "Usthman Gal" was merged into the Pakistan National Party which also included "Khudai Khidmatgar" from N.W.F.P, "Azaad Pakistan Party