Daily Times

QUETTA: The PML-N dissidents and PML-Q legislators on Thursday nominated Balochistan Assembly former deputy speaker Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo as the new chief minister of the province.

“Yes, Qudoos Bizenjo will be the new leader of the house,” senior politician and former senator Saeed Ahmed Hashmi said after a consultative meeting held at his residence .

While speaking to the media, Bizenjo confirmed his candidacy and said that he will reach out to all the political parties, including Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and National Party (NP), for parliamentary consultations. “We will try to resolve issues in the province by keeping everyone together,” he said.

In his brief talk, former chief minister Sardar Jan Jamali expressed hope that Bizenjo would be elected unopposed, but said the group was ready to compete if it came to that.

Nomination papers for the post of chief minister would be submitted to the provincial assembly Friday (today) morning and it is expected that Bizenjo will be elected on Saturday. “With the support of like-minded legislators, Bizenjo will be easily elected as the new chief minister,” Hashmi hoped.

Bizenjo belongs to the troubled Awaran district of Balochistan and was elected on a PML-Q ticket during general elections 2013. He won the seat obtaining only 544 of the 57,666 registered votes in the constituency as turnout was an abysmal 1.18 per cent since the separatists had called for a boycott of the elections.

Bizenjo played a front-line role in submitting the no-confidence motion against Sanaullah Zehri on January 2.

Published in Daily Times, January 12^th 2018.