Daily Times

QUETTA: Opposition parties in Balochistan have made it clear that they will not be part of the new government set-up after Nawab Sanaullah Zehri’s resignation as chief minister of the province.

“We will not be part of [the] future government,” Leader of Opposition in Balochistan Assembly Maulana Wasey told a crowded press conference on Wednesday.

The opposition, however, promised to support the candidate proposed by the PML-N dissidents. “Opposition will support any new candidate for the chief minister Balochistan named by the disgruntled PML-N legislators,” Wasey said.

Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, PML-Q MPA and former deputy speaker Abdul Quddus Bizenjo and PML-N dissidents Jan Jamali and Sardar Saleh Bhootani were also present on the occasion. “We played our democratic role and will continue to do so in the future,” Mengal said. BNP, which has two legislators in the Balochistan Assembly, had previously supported the no-confidence motion against Zehri.

With the opposition out of the process, the disgruntled group within the PML-N is set to nominate a new leader of the house. The dissident group within the PML-N includes Sarfraz Bugti, whose ouster from the home minister’s office had worsened the political crisis in the province.

Published in Daily Times, January 11^th 2018.