Sanjrani wins back disgruntled Baloch MPAs

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has managed to convince the disgruntled ministers and MPAs of Balochistan to call off their plan to support a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Jam Kamal.

The Senate chairman is holding a series of political meetings in Balochistan to thwart the no-trust motion against the CM.

Senator Manzoor Kakar, Senator Ahmed Khan and Senator Sarfraz Bugti are also active for this purpose.

Sources said Sanjrani had promised to address the reservations of the disgruntled provincial ministers and MPAs of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) after which they dropped their plan to support the opposition’s no-confidence motion against the chief minister.

Now, around 40 provincial assembly members are supporting Kamal.

Sanjrani has assured the provincial ministers and MPAs that a committee would be formed to address their woes.

The body, comprising of senators, MNAs and provincial ministers, would be formed next week.
Recently, 16 opposition lawmakers in the Balochistan Assembly had filed a no-confidence motion against CM Kamal over poor governance, rising unrest and unemployment in the province, and presenting a biased development budget.

They had demanded that a session be called for a debate on the motion within seven days.
In the motion, the opposition MPAs had stated that there was "extreme disappointment" and unrest in the province, while unemployment and performance of institutions had been badly affected because of Kamal's "bad governance".

It said Kamal had violated Article 37 (promotion of social justice and eradication of social evils) and 38 (promotion of social and economic well-being of the people) of the Constitution and passed budgets due to which poverty, deprivation and unrest had increased in certain areas in the province.

The motion added that CM Kamal had adopted an “extremely non-serious attitude” towards problems related to ensuring fundamental and constitutional rights, adding that gas, electricity and water shortages had occurred as a result.

The no-confidence motion was signed by opposition leader Malik Sikander Khan, Sanaullah Baloch, Nasrullah Zehri, Asghar Ali Tareen, Zabid Ali Raiki, Younas Aziz Zehri, Akhtar Hussain Langau, Akbar Mengal, Raheem Mengal, Sham Lal, Ahmad Nawa, Shakeela Dehwar, Titus Johnson and Naseer Shahwani.

MPA Langau later told reporters that they had the majority vote against the CM and the no-trust motion would be successful.

In response, Kamal had said that he did not care about the opposition’s no-confidence motion against him.

“Alhamdulillah, I do not care at all about the no-confidence motion filed by the opposition,” the CM stated. “It is important to me that my party and allies are with me. The day my party and allies are not with me, it will be useless for me to be the leader of the house and I will resign.”