Balochistan government: Amid brewing storm, NP chief denies claims

Mir Hasil Bizenjo says complaints of PML-N ministers are baseless.

ISLAMABAD:

A political storm appears to be brewing in Balochistan as the ruling Nationalist Party (NP) has brushed aside allegations levelled by legislators from two partners of the provincial government against the chief minister.

Provincial ministers and advisers belonging to the PML-N and allied PML-Q decided on Thursday to resign en masse if the chief minister, Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch, did not stop ‘meddling’ in their ministries and departments.

“We came to know about their decision [of resigning] through media reports. Voicing grievances through the media is untenable,” NP’s Acting President Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo told The Express Tribune on Friday.

“Every MPA claims he is ignored by the chief minister. The PML-N ministers and advisers have similar complaints which carry no weight,” he added. “We will hold dialogue with them once they tender their resignations.”



However, Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, a provincial minister belonging to another coalition partner, the PkMAP, said he was in talks with the estranged cabinet members. “The government will address their grievances in a democratic manner,” he told The Express Tribune.

The coalition partners have been bickering over power sharing since the government was installed in the province after weeks of negotiations following the May 2013 elections.

PML-N’s provincial chief Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, an ethnic Bloch tribal chieftain from Khuzdar, has been opposed to the dominant role of the PkMAP, an ethnic Pashtun party, in the provincial setup. He has been accusing the chief minister of favouring ministers and advisers from the PkMAP.

Zehri, who is in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, is said to have asked his followers to prepare for en masse resignations if the chief minister does not change his attitude.

“We have already decided to quit the cabinet. We are waiting for our parliamentary leader, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, to return from abroad,” Mir Haji Akbar Aaskani, the chief minister’s adviser on fisheries, told The Express Tribune. “Instead of being humiliated by the chief ministers, we will prefer to sit on the benches of independent members,” he added.

He claimed that his party’s ministers were constantly being ignored by the chief minister and the provincial government. “All PML-N ministers have been sidelined by the chief minister in administrative matters. Commissioners, deputy commissioners and other administrative officers are not obliging our instructions – the chief minister has told them to only accept his orders,” Aaskani said.

Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, who holds the portfolios of information, law and parliamentary affairs and information technology, denied that the chief minister was favouring PkMAP ministers and advisers.

“Partners in coalition governments always make such allegations against each other. It’s a natural course in coalition governments,’’ he added. “I must make it clear that the ministers belonging to the PkMAP are not being accorded extraordinary treatment by the chief minister.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2014.