Judge orders FIR against Balochistan CM

A session judge has ordered registration of a case against Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan and former SSP Operations Quetta during the hearing of a 22A application of opposition member of the Balochistan Assembly.

On Saturday, Additional Sessions Judge Quetta 1, on the request of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Member Provincial Assembly Abdul Wahid Siddiqui, ordered an FIR be registered against Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan and former SSP Operations Quetta Ahmed Mohi-ud-Din under Section 22A of the CRPC. The MPA had been injured during a protest when police forced entered the assembly to clear the opposition’s protest outside the assembly building in June.

Announcing the reserved verdict on the petition, he directed the police to register an FIR against Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan and former SSP Operations Quetta Ahmad Mohi-ud-Din.

During the scuffle, the gate of the Balochistan assembly was smashed by police with armored vehicles, injuring Abdul Wahid Siddiqui, a member of the provincial assembly.

MPA had requested police to lodge FIR against Former SSP Operations Quetta but due to non-filing of case by the police, he filed a case under Section 22A of the CRPC in the Sessions Judge’s Court.

The court has ruled in the favour of the applicant.

It is worth noting here that on June 18, at least three protesting Balochistan MPAs were injured in clash with police as opposition lawmakers staged a sit-in outside the provincial assembly to stop the government from presenting the budget.

Read Balochistan considers ‘tough decisions’

However, Provincial Finance Minister Zahoor Buledi later presented a Rs584.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year that carried a hefty development stimulus of Rs237.2 billion and a deficit of Rs84.6 billion.

The opposition lawmakers of the JUI-F, BNP-M, PkMAP and independent members along with their supporters had been camping outside the assembly building for the last few days in protest against the coalition government in the province led by chief minister Jam Kamal for refusing to allocate development funds for their constituencies in the next year’s budget.

The opposition parties had blocked national highways passing through many cities and towns of Balochistan, including Quetta, Chagai, Washuk, Kharan and Nushki in protest against the government a day earlier.

They had announced that they would not allow the government to present the budget until their suggested development schemes were made part of the provincial Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the next financial year.

The budget session was delayed by at least two hours because of the protest as the opposition lawmakers had locked the assembly gates from inside to prevent the treasury members from entering the building.

The police had to break open the gate of the MPAs Hostel using an armoured vehicle to let the treasury lawmakers enter the assembly.

Three opposition members of the assembly reportedly suffered injuries when they tried to impede the police vehicle from breaking open the gate.

They were later identified as Ahmed Nawaz Baloch, Babu Rahim and Abdul Wahid Siddiqui.

Later, the police clashed with the protesters outside the assembly as they refused to clear the premises.

The police used batons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd to open the main entrance.

A few unidentified activists of the opposition parties vandalised the assembly building and attacked the chief minister and some of his cabinet colleagues.

The adviser and parliamentary secretary on information suffered slight injuries.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2021.