Malik resigns, successor to be elected today

QUETTA: Balochistan’s new chief minister and speaker of the provincial assembly will be elected during the proceedings of the house on Thursday (today).

“The chief minister and speaker of the house would be elected during the assembly proceedings on December 24, 2015,” read the statement released by the Balochistan Assembly Secretariat late Wednesday night.

Earlier, Dr Abdul Malik relinquished the post of Balochistan chief minister after a meeting with Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai at the Governor House. The governor accepted the resignation.

“Candidates for speaker of the house can submit their application forms at the assembly secretariat from 9am to 10am, and voting for the speaker would be held from 10am to 11am,” added the statement. “The newly announced Balochistan CM can file his documents from 1pm to 2pm, while in the next hour his documents would be checked and finalised.”

After completing half of his tenure, Malik has paved the way for Sanaullah Zehri, the ruling party’s Balochistan president, whom Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had nominated as the next CM earlier this month in accordance with the tripartite Murree agreement.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the National Party had signed the power-sharing deal in Murree on June 4, 2013.

Meanwhile, Abdul Quddus Bizenjo submitted his resignation as the Balochistan Assembly deputy speaker to the assembly secretariat. He, however, withdrew his letter on Zehri’s request. The post of Balochistan Assembly speaker, on the other hand, has been lying vacant since May 22.

According to a source, the PML-N’s central leadership has nominated MPA Raheela Durrani as the assembly speaker. Raheela could become the first-ever female speaker of the Balochistan Assembly.


Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.