PML-N Balochistan forms contingency plan

Zehri wins over support of JUI-F to form govt if NP, PkMAP quit

ISLAMABAD: The Balochistan chapter of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has cobbled together a contingency plan, if its two allies renege on a 2013 power-sharing deal and decide to sit on the opposition benches in the provincial legislature.  

Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, the president of the Balochistan chapter of PML-N, on Sunday enlisted support of eight legislators of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, fearing that the National Party of Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party of Mehmood Khan Achakzai might not honour the agreement the three parties had signed in Murree.



The Murree agreement envisages that Chief Minister Baloch step down midway through his five-year constitutional term to make way for another chief minister from the PML-N. Sanaullah Zehri is expected to succeed Baloch after December 4 should the deal comes through.

Now, let’s do a little math. Currently, the Balochistan Assembly has 64 members, one short of its full strength. Thirty-three members are required to form a government in the province. The PML-N has 21 MPAs. One has defected, which leaves it with 20 members. The party also enjoys the support of five PML-Q and one Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen legislators, which means it has 26-member support in the house. After winning over the JUI-F, the PML-N will have support of 34 MPAs – one more than the required numbers. It also hopes to win over an independent legislator.

Now, let’s look at the numbers of other major parties. The National Party has 11 MPAs, PkMAP 14, ANP 1, BNP-Mengal 2 and BNP-Awami 1. If the PML-N quits and all these parties join hands, they will have 29 legislators – four less than the required 33-member support to defeat a no-confidence vote against the leader of the house, or chief minister.

Despite Bugti, a peaceful Balochistan will remain a distant dream

PML-N’s central and provincial leaders will call on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after he returns from Paris, where he is attending a UN climate change conference, before December 4 to discuss the future political set-up in Balochistan.

The NP and PkMAP will either honour the Murree deal or quit the coalition. And sources said the PML-N has done the necessary spadework for either scenario.

Traditionally, Baloch and Pakhtuns keep their word, said a PML-N senator from Balochistan, Agha Shahbaz Khan Durrani. “The PML-N, PkMAP and NP are signatories to the Murree agreement. And all the parties should honour the deal,” he told The Express Tribune. “NP’s statement that the prime minister will decide the fate of the Murree agreement contravenes tribal customs.”



Senator Durrani said that according to the Murree agreement the NP chief minister should have resigned before December 4. “I don’t know why the NP is clinging on to power and refuses to step down,” he said. “The PML-N Balochistan chapter wants implementation of the Murree accord in toto.”

Apparently, Chief Minister Baloch is reluctant to relinquish power, he believes. “Now, he says an amount of Rs500 billion is required for development works in the province,” he said referring to a statement the chief minister made in his address to a national security workshop in Quetta on Saturday.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th,  2015.