Balochistan gets a new chief minister

quetta — The Balochistan Assembly on Saturday elected Abdul Quddus Bizenjo as the new chief minister of the province, days after former chief minister Sanaullah Zehri stepped down ahead of a noconfidence motion against him.

Speaker Raheela Hameed Durrani made the announcement on the floor of the House. Bizenjo secured 41 votes out of total 51 votes cast in the election.

His opponent Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) member Agha Syed Liaquat Ali bagged 13 votes. In a house of 65 members, at least 33 votes were required to elect the chief minister.

Besides his party, Bizenjo also had the support of disgruntled members of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Jamiat Ulemae-Islam (Fazl). He is the third chief minister of the province in four and-a-half years.

Another PkMap candidate Abdul Rahim Ziyaratwal, who also filed his nominations, had withdrawn from the race.

Bizenjo was later sworn in as the chief minister and the oath was administered at the Governor’s House by provincial governor Mohammed Khan Achakzai.

His 14-member cabinet also took the oath later.

Strict security measures were taken on the occasion and thousands of policemen were deployed around the assembly hall to ward off any untoward incident.

Roads surrounding assembly building were also sealed off for regular traffic.

Abdul Quddus Bizenjo was born in Awaran on January 1, 1974, and contested elections for the first time in 2002. He was elected from the PB-41 constituency.

As a Pakistan Muslim League-Q candidate he remained deputy speaker of the provincial assembly from 2013 to 2015.

Bizenjo was elected as MPA from Awaran in the 2013 general election. — APP