Balochistan Assembly elected Jam Kamal, the president of the newly-formed Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), as its 16th Leader of the House on Saturday. Kamal defeated Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s Mir Yunas Aziz Zehri securing 39 votes against 20 votes of the latter. The session was chaired by the newly-elected Speaker Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo. Kamal was the joint candidate of the governing coalition in the province, comprising BAP, the Awami National Party, the Hazara Democratic Party, the Jamhoori Watan Party, the Balochistan National Party-Awami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. The new Chief Minister will take oath of his office at the Governor’s House in Quetta on Sunday evening. Third generation CM Kamal is the third person in his family to be elected Balochistan chief minister. His grandfather, Jam Mir Ghulam Qadir Khan, was first elected as the chief minister of the province in 1972 from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) platform. He also served as the CM in 1985, then elected as an independent. Jam Kamal’s father, Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf, served as the CM from 2002 to 2007. He died of a heart attack in 2013. Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2018.