Hiring of special assistants infuriates opposition

Jam Kamal Khan appoints four leaders of BAP to the posts

QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan on Friday appointed four of his close aides as special assistants with immediate effect, triggering a new debate on favouritism in the financially stricken province. All four of them belong to the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).
On the appointments, the joint opposition parties slammed the provincial government for giving undue favour to BAP.



They called the law under which the appointments were made black law, saying such a move would definitely overburden the provincial government already struggling under limited resources.
BAP Secretary General Manzoor Khan Kakar, Husnain Hahsmi, son of Saeed Ahmed Hahsmi - founder of BAP, Capt (retd) Abdul Khaliq Achakzai and Rameen Muhammad Hassani, son of Sardar Rustam Jan Muhammad Hassani, were appointed as special assistants to the chief minister.
“We had opposed the appointments on the assembly floor when the provincial coalition government tabled the act, but today it has been proven that the BAP-led provincial government was fooling the people of Balochistan with false slogans and claims,” said Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PkMAP) Nasrullah Khan Zeeray, vowing to continue opposing the appointments.



“They should have sent the act to the standing committee and after its approval a bill should have been tabled in the assembly for unanimous approval, but with the so-called majority the government passed the bill in the house,” said Zeeray, calling the appointments as blatant violation of the Constitution and the 18th amendment.
The special assistants would get all the privileges and protocol being enjoyed by the provincial ministers and advisers.
The provincial government, including Chief Minister Kamal, had been looking towards the federal government for financial assistance as the province had plunged into the worst financial crisis in the history of Pakistan.



“On the one hand, the provincial government has been stressing upon minimum use of provincial resources, but on the other, the appointments will increase the financial woes of the provincial government,” said Balochistan National Party-Mengal MPA Ahmed Nawaz Baloch. “The opposition has decided to oppose the appointments inside and outside the assembly with full vigour. We will move against the provincial government’s act of awarding government’s resources to BAP’s favourite leaders.”
He said they would knock at the door of the honourable courts against the unconstitutional attitude of the BAP-led government.
During the last assembly session, the joint opposition parties strongly condemned the bill regarding appointments of special assistants to the chief minister and boycotted the proceedings of the house as according to them the appointments would put additional burden on the province’s resources.