Balochistan setup: PkMAP to back PML-N if Murree deal falters

NP lures Sardar Yaqoob to fight their case with PM.

ISLAMABAD: The National Party-led coalition government in Balochistan seems to have lost one of its allies, as the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) has struck a deal with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), The Express Tribune learnt on Monday.

A day earlier, PML-N Balochistan chief Sardar Sanaullah Zehri had enlisted support of eight legislators of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, fearing that Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik’s NP and Mehmood Khan Achakzai-led PkMAP might renege on the power-sharing deal made between the three parties in Murree.

According to the 2013 agreement, CM Malik was to step down midway through his five-year constitutional term to make way for another chief minister from the PML-N.

As the December 4 deadline for implementing the agreement approaches, the three parties have intensified negotiations for the next Balochistan setup.

Although Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to hold meetings with all the stakeholders after he returns from Paris – where he is attending a United Nations climate change summit – the three parties have already started floating proposals.

PkMAP chief Achakzai had held a meeting with Zehri a few days before leaving for Afghanistan and discussed the role of his party’s provincial ministers after December 4.

A source said both leaders had agreed to support each other and decide their representatives in the follow-up meetings, which had now concluded and the two parties had arrived at an agreement for the post-December 4 scenario.

“Achakzai and Zehri have decided that if the NP leadership does not honour the Murree agreement, then the PkMAP would back the PML-N’s no-confidence vote against CM Malik.” In exchange, the PkMAP has been assured that its Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai would not be replaced and the party would also be able to keep a few ministries, added the source. “Zehri has promised Achakzai to accommodate the PkMAP in the new Balochistan cabinet.”

Meanwhile, NP chief Hasil Bizenjo and CM Malik are also attempting to save their government. The two leaders are believed to have approached PML-N’s veteran leader from Balochistan Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir in a bid to persuade him to speak to the premier on the NP’s behalf, so the current setup is allowed to continue.

A source said the two parties had reached an agreement on the condition that the governor is replaced with Yaqoob after December 4.

Yaqoob does not enjoy the support of the PML-N’s 20 MPAs in the Balochistan Assembly, and he could make trouble for the current office-bearers of the party’s Balochistan chapter, added the source.

However, the final development will emerge after PM Nawaz meets all the signatories of the Murree deal and listens to their proposals.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st,  2015.