THE sardari system is a legacy of the British raj. Most problems facing the present government in Balochistan are a legacy of the past. With the emergence of Pakistan, the people looked forward to a better tomorrow.

However, successive governments at the centre failed to introduce reforms in the age-old sardari system because of political compulsions.

The British maintained the tribal systemin Balochistan by givingstipends, privileges, pensions and grants to tribal chiefs and headmen.

They did not interfere in the inhuman tribal traditions, dubbed Islamic by the sardars. The British government itself provided jail facilities to tribal convicts.

Sardars surreptitiously established their own private jails in the post-independence era. Interestingly, the political agents had draconian powers under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, 1901.

Sardars exacted a heavy price from the British by treating their clans like a herd of sheep. They kept the people poor, illiterate andignorant.Because oflack ofpolitical unity, illiteracy and wherewithal, the Baloch people could not mount a forceful resistance against the sardari system.

It is time the government realised that tribalism has had its heyday. It is not the successive governments, but the sardari system which accounts for their misery.

What is needed is a bold initiative on the part of the federal government to uproot the sardari system. In law, according to the concept of `eminent domain` and Islamic concept of maslaha mursala (broader public interest), the government has a preferential claim on the natural resources.

It can even forcibly acquire the gas fields land. The government should bring home this point to the nawabs. The root-cause of the problem is the medieval sardari system in Balochistan. This system should be abolished.

Malik Asad Rawalpindi