Daily Times

Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali announced his resignation from the National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday.

Speaking in the NA, Jamali, who hails from Balochistan’s Jaffarabad district, said that if the prime minister and opposition leader were unhappy with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman’s performance, than they should resign as the NAB chief was appointed after their mutual consultation.

He also criticised the federal government over its failure to allocate adequate resources for Balochistan in the federal budget.

Jamali also blamed the NA speaker for failing to stop demonising of state institutions in the Parliament.

Jamali, who served as the prime minister from 2002 to 2004 during President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s tenure, is presently associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

During the session, lawmakers from the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-Q and Awami National Party decided not to submit cut motions on the budget – a tradition of the opposition parties.

Repeating opposition parties’ stance, PTI MNA Shireen Mazari said presentation of a full year’s budget by a government that was completing its tenure in a matter of weeks was unacceptable.

Discussing the government’s plan to introduce a bill related to the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman called the attempt ‘part of a foreign agenda’.

Published in Daily Times, May 17^th 2018.