Yousuf Mustikhan, a true heir of Bizenjo, leaves a big void in progressive politics
Yousuf Mustikhan was indeed a hero for struggling for the rights of the oppressed people. He was most inspired by the struggle of “Father of Balochistan” Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo
The death of veteran Baloch progressive nationalist leader Yousuf Mustikhan, 78 —my first cousin—, president of the leftist Awami Workers Party, last Thursday is no doubt a big blow to the struggle of the oppressed people and nationalities in Pakistan.
Former chief executive of France-sized southwestern Balochistan province and head of the popular Balochistan National Party, Sardar Akhtar Mengal tweeted his picture with the late leader, who was close to his late father Sardar Attaullah Mengal. Mengal, who is called Baloch Nelson Mandela, said, “Devastated to hear about the passing of Yousuf Masti Khan… A big loss for Balochistan.” Mengal’s elder brother, London-based Javed Mengal, who believes in a free Balochistan, called, “Mustikhan, a veteran voice of the oppressed…”
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in Mustikhan’s death “the country has lost not only a veteran political leader, but also an unwavering human rights defender who was not afraid to hold the state accountable for its transgressions, especially in Balochistan.”
Dr Amir Soomro, grandson of legendary Sindhi leader Shaheed Allah Bakhsh Soomro— the second premier of Sindh after its separation from Bombay presidency in 1935–, expressing his shock, said, “We lost a brave person; a man of principles and symbol of struggle.” The Soomros of Shikarpur have been family friends of Yousuf Mustikhan’s elders for more than eight decades.
Fifi Haroon, daughter of the late Saeed A. Haroon— the Haroons were Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s main hosts in Karachi and played a key role in the formation of Pakistan—, also paid tributes. She said on Twitter, “There are those who leave us with so much of themselves that they never die. Their thoughts and ideas live on and guide us through life.” Her elder brother former Pakistan ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, was present throughout the last rites of the late leader. Like the Soomros, the Haroons too have been close with Yousuf Mustikhan’s family for decades. Fifi Haroon’s grandmother Lady Nusrat Haroon used to bankroll Yousuf Mustikhan’s grandmother Bibi Shaher Bano Mustikhan during World War Two as the then super-rich Mustikhan family’s assets in Burma were affected by the war.
Journalist and writer Nafisa Hoodbhoy, who belongs to the scholarly Hoodbhoy family of old Karachi, said, “Yusuf Mustikhan was a man of the people, who lived by his beliefs…. may the oppressed nationalities of Pakistan realize fruits of his struggles.”
A notable from Dadu district Dr Sultan Ahmed Leghari, who is contesting elections for the president of the Sindhi Association of North America (S.A.N.A.) called Mustikhan’s death “a big tragedy with Sindh and Balochistan.”
Yousuf Mustikhan kissing the head of Sardar Akhtar Mengal.
The late leader steadfastly fought for his people for almost half century after quitting his megabucks job at the Burmah Shell oil company in Pakistan in early 1970s. He was first arrested in 1975 along with an uncle Sattar Mustikhan by the intelligence services under the suspicion they were supplying ration to the Baloch insurgents in the mountains of Balochistan during the 1973-77 Baloch armed revolt against Pakistan military.
Then premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who knew Sattar Mustikhan from childhood and used to call him by his pet name “Sattoo,” could not bell the intelligence agency cats and was finally overthrown by his own handpicked monkey general, Ziaul Haq. Yousuf Mustikhan used to recall the humility he faced: a six foot six inch Mianwali sepoy was deputed to torture him and told him if he did not tell everything truthfully about the insurgents, he would be sodomized. According to noted New York-based Sindhi columnist Hasan Mujtaba this form of torture was a trademark of the first Bhutto government.
One of the most educated Baloch notables in Pakistan, Sherazam Mazari, said, “Waja Yousaf was an upright courageous person who I will miss.” In the late 1970s Mazari’s father Sardar Sherbaz Mazari, who was chief of the Mazari tribe, was the central president of the National Democratic Party; Yousuf Mustikhan was the head of the party’s Karachi chapter. Mazari, who is a world class banker, added, “We thought as one .. he had the resolve to pursue while I became a banker.”
Sherazam Mazari with Yousuf Mustikhan at Mustikhan Lodge, Karachi, few months ago.
Yousuf Mustikhan was closest to “Father of Balochistan” Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, who was the first advocate for a free Balochistan in 1947 when the British carved out Pakistan from India. Since Yousuf Mustikhan’s hometown of Karachi is in Sindh, he could have easily found a place in the leadership of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (P.P.P.), whose founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was overthrown in a military coup and later hanged. Yousuf Mustikhan himself said in an interview that had he joined the P.P.P., he would have become one of the party’s heavyweights. He was right. During the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy and later when Yousuf Mustikhan visited 70 Clifton for talks with Begum Nusrat Bhutto— a friend of Sattar Mustikhan— Benazir Bhutto would come and squat at his feet. However, Yousuf Mustikhan shunned the P.P.P. as unlike most Pakistan politicians he never sought political office but remained committed to his political ideals and loyal to the teachings of Bizenjo.
According to famous Sindh barrister and former additional advocate general Mustafa Mahesar, an audio file of Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo is circulating on the social media in which he is heard as saying, “I am first a Mustikhan, then a Bizenjo.” The late Balochistan leader also says the Mustikhan Lodge— the original mansion built in 1912 sprawled three acres in Garden, Karachi— was his first home when he moved to Karachi from Nal as a teenager.
Yousuf Mustikhan’s closeness to the late Baloch leader even left his sons jealous. “I am a son of Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo and Yousuf claims he is his political heir,” late Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo once told this writer sarcastically.
Lawyer Shawas Bizenjo, son of late Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo, with Yousuf Mustikhan.
Yousuf Mustikhan was born July 16, 1944 in Karachi and had attended some of the best convent schools in Murree, mostly raised by his mother. He said his sense of being different from Pakistan mainstream was developed in Murree as the students from Punjab would laugh upon him when he spoke Balochi with a cousin.
His dad Akber Y. Mustikhan used to live with his mistresses in London as a British national. The dad was a socialite in three major cities: Rangoon, London and Karachi— rubbing shoulders with the powerful, rich and famous. His dad later revoked his U.K. citizenship and in 1983 became the fisheries minister in the Gen Zia cabinet.
Yousuf Mustikhan married a woman from the famous Lodin family of Kandahar, Bibi Shireen Lodin, who was close to this writer. She had preceded him in death less than five months earlier. The two have grownup children: three men and two women.
Prof Naela Quadri, who lives in British Columbia, and is the self-styled prime minister of the New Delhi-aided government of Balochistan in exile, says she was close to the late leader.
In a WhatsApp message, she said, “I am grieving, I have lost my closest comrade, my mentor, the most trustworthy person on earth.” She added, “His last words to me were Baloch bazzagen sak bazzagen (Baloch people are oppressed, very oppressed) tears dropped from his eyes…”
Postscript: Yousuf Mustikhan was a childhood fiancé of this writer’s eldest sister Shama Sheikh, classmate of Burmese freedom leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Thankfully the engagement dissolved and while the deceased leader married an Afghan lady this writer’s sister married Ghulam Sarwar Sheikh, a close relative of late Seth Abid.
Picture Rangoon, circa 1949, when Yousuf Mustikhan was five and Shama Sheikh was three, along with other family members.