Balochistan Assembly: Barozai miffed as CS summons session

QUETTA:

Caretaker Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Ghaus Bakhsh Barozai has threatened to resign after an argument with the province’s chief secretary on the issue of calling the session of the Balochistan Assembly, sources said on Wednesday.

The administration has sent the summary for calling the provincial assembly session directly to Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, whereas Barozai was expecting that it would be sent to him and he would forward it to the governor, sources said.

Magsi has called the session of Balochistan Assembly on June 1, where outgoing speaker of the assembly Syed Matiullah Agha would administer oath to the elected members and issue the schedule for election of the speaker and the deputy speaker.

Though his days as caretaker CM are numbered, Barozai felt offended on being ignored by the administration and summoned the Chief Secretary Baber Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad at his office, sources said.

Barozai told Fateh Muhammad that in other provinces chief ministers have sent the summary to the governors, but here the bureaucracy neglected him, sources said, adding that the chief minister and the chief secretary exchanged arguments over this issue.

Sources said that Barozai has decided to resign after the unconstitutional process of calling the session.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the chief minister told reporters that rules were ignored in calling the first session of the newly elected Balochistan Assembly.

“As per law, the summary had to be sent to the chief minister for calling the assembly session and after that by the order of the chief minster the summary would be sent to the governor to call the session,” the spokesman said.

Instead of following the procedure, the summary was sent to the governor directly and no contact was made with the chief minister for holding the session, he said.

Later in the evening, the spokesperson to the government of Balochistan rejected the news aired on TV channels regarding arguments between the chief minister and the chief secretary over the issue.

The spokesperson through a statement said that neither any such meeting between the caretaker CM and the CS had taken place nor any arguments ensued. He termed airing of such news ‘irresponsible journalism’.

Meeting to pick Balochistan CM

The PML N’s chief Nawaz Sharif has called the Balochistan’s parliamentary party meeting on May 30 in Lahore to select the leader of the Balochistan Assembly.

According to sources, the senior members of the PML N Balochistan will also reach Lahore to meet Nawaz Sharif and hammer out any differences in deciding the name of next chief minister of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2013.