Sirdar Sherbaz Khan Mazari, a scion of a leading Baloch chief's family, actively entered politics by supporting Miss Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan in the presidential election of 1964. In 1970 he was elected to the National Assembly as an Independent candidate. After the Bhutto-led army action in Balochistan and the subsequent banning of the National Awami Party, Sherbaz Khan Mazari formed the National Democratic Party in an effort to challenge Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's autocratic rule. He was to play a leading role in the Pakistan National Alliance agitation that eventually led to the downfall of Bhutto. During the subsequent army rule, he became a leading opponent of Zia during the twelve-year dictatorship, as Chairman of Movement for the Restoration of Democracy's Pakistan Bachao Committee. Not surprisingly, Sherbaz Khan Mazari was to suffer imprisonment on numerous occasions during the Bhutto and Zia regimes. He retired from active politics in 1998.