Ending wait: JUI-F decides not to join Balochistan govt

Party not happy with offer of three cabinet slots.

ISLAMABAD:

Spending months deliberating if they should join the Balochistan government, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl has decided against the move.

The opposition party, which had hoped for a new provincial political set-up and had demanded a ‘bigger role’ in the province, refused to join the coalition for just three cabinet portfolios.

Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch in a meeting with JUI-F Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri had offered the religio-political party three ministries in the provincial government, sources told The Express Tribune.

“The party decided not to join the provincial government on this share. The JUI-F was not interested in joining the present set-up as it is,” said a party leader who added that he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The JUI-F wanted a change in power equation in the present government set-up in Balochistan, he said.

Earlier in May, before forming the new government in Balochistan the two coalition parties, National Party and the Pashtunkwa Milli Awami Party, had strongly opposed including JUI-F in the government.

“Undue share has been given to both the NP and the PkMAP in the present set-up,” the JUI-F leader said.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which formed a coalition with NP and PkMAP in Balochistan, urged JUI-F to join the provincial government. However, it left it to the parties themselves to hammer out a formula for cooperation among them.

“The PML-N has no role in the recent talks for cooperation among the three parties,” said the JUI-F leader. Senator Haideri and other JUI-F leaders told Dr Baloch that the party’s central executive committee would decide on joining the government or staying on the opposition benches in the province.

The central committee held its meeting on Friday at the residence of Senator Haideri and deliberated on the issue. “Most party leaders advised against joining the Balochistan government on the terms offered,” said a JUI-F leader privy to the development.

However, the JUI-F spokesperson Jan Achakzai maintained that the party has no desire to join the present set-up. “Had we been consulted on day one by the PML-N, province of Balochistan would have not been without a cabinet for three months,” said Achakzai.

He added his party believed that the provincial chapter of PML-N should be empowered to take decisions for the province. “As far as JUI-F is concerned, we believe there is a need for a new social contract and we have no desire to join the present set-up,” said the JUI-F spokesperson.

Speaking to journalists after the first session of the party’s central committee meeting, the JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said his party was thankful to the PML-N for accepting its proposal on talks with Taliban. The JUI-F would provide all-out support to the government in the process of engaging all political parties into talks for devising a counter-terrorism strategy.

Fazl said no specific group of the Taliban was being targeted at this point. “At this time we are only devising mechanisms and putting things into perspective. Selecting the groups for talks would come at a later stage,” said Fazl.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2013.