Provincial Assembly: Balochistan lawmakers flock to opposition

17 PML-Q, PPP and independent legislators quit govt; PML-N members join opposition.

QUETTA:

As many as 17 legislators in the Balochistan Assembly handed in their resignation to opposition leader Nawabzada Tariq Magsi on Saturday and announced that they will sit on the opposition benches.

The move came hours after President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani struck a deal to defuse a burgeoning constitutional crisis in the province. The lawmakers belonged to PML-Q, PPP, and independent.

During a hurriedly called press conference at the residence of provincial president of PML-Q’s Shiekh Jaffer Mandokhel, former provincial minister Sardar Muhammad Aslam Bizenjo, Captain (retd) Abdul Khaliq Achakzai, Mir Saddiq Umrani, Shiekh Jaffer Khan Mandokhail , Nawabzada Tariq Magsi, Amanullah Notezai, Saleem Khosa, Habibur Rehman Muhammad Hasani, Jan Ali Changezai, Babu Raheem Mengal, Sardar Masood Looni, Mir Shoaib Nosherwani, Muhammad Aslam Bhootani, Mir Tariq Masoori Bugti, Basant Lal Gulshan, Dr Ruqia Saeed Hashmi, Sobia Kiran Kibzai gave in their resignations.

“We handed over our resignations to Nawabzada Tariq Magsi so that we can take better decisions for the caretaker setup in the province,” they said.

In a meeting between President Zardari, Chief Minister Raisani, BNP-Awami and Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl, it was decided that the present set-up would be allowed in the government but the opposition leader would be changed.

Thereby, Raisani was named as the leader of the house and JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Wasay as leader of the opposition, while Balochistan National Party-Awami’s Ahsan Shah would be the caretaker chief minister.

PML-N joins opposition

In a related development, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also announced that its legislators would sit on the opposition benches.

At a news conference, PML-N President Sardar Sanaullah Zehri accompanied by Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, Tahir Muhammad Khan and Ismail Gujjar said that his party has decided to sit on the opposition benches.

“We are in contact with over 40 members of PML-Q, independent candidates, PPP and other parties, thus we could prove to be a majority [in the opposition],” he said, adding that along with these members they would take decisions in the interest of the province.

National Party (NP) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) warned that if a biased caretaker chief minister and cabinet were installed in the province, they would possibly review their decision of participating in the election.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2013.