QUETTA: During its 51-year history, no chief minister in Balochistan except Jam Yousaf – the father of former chief minister Jam Kamal – has ever completed his 5-year-term, thanks to the electables who quickly change their loyalties for personal gains or due to pressure from the powers that be.
These electables had complaints against Nawab Akbar Bugti – who became the chief minister after the 1988 election. These lawmakers described Bugti as being too strict after the 1990 election they hurriedly elected Mir Taj Jamali, whom they soon found indulgent to a fault.
Jamali was later replaced with Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi.
After the 1997 elections, Sardar Akhtar Mengal got elected as chief minister with absolute majority, but within a few months, the members from his own party started pressuring him.
A number of these lawmakers parted ways with him while the allied parties – Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N and Nawab Akbar Bugti’s JWP also left him in the lurch, forcing Mengal to resign.
In his 2008-2013 government, chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani had to include 50 plus members in his cabinet, more than a dozen of them without any portfolio.
After the 18th Amendment, the provincial cabinet can comprise only 15 members including the chief minister while the number of advisers should be up to five.
Nawab Sanaullah Zehri took oath of the office in December 2015 after Dr Abdul Malik Baloch completed his two-and-a-half term as part of a power sharing formula agreed between the PML-N and National Party in the wake of 2013 general elections.
However, Zehri could not complete his two-and-a-half-year term as in January 2018 – six months before the 2018 general election – Abdul Quddus Bizenjo revolted against Zehri and within few days, all party members except one member, Kishwar Jattak, joined the Bizenjo group.
The party rebels who also had the support of 12 members from opposition benches threatened chief minister Zehri that if he didn’t step down, he would be ousted through a no-confidence motion. And Zehri, who belonged to the PML-N, had to step down.
Bizenjo, who belongs to a restive Awaran district, briefly enjoyed the position of chief minister before dissolution of assemblies in the country for general elections.
He also tried his best to become the chief minister again after the polls but Islamabad and BAP’s majority members backed Jam Kamal, a new entrant in Balochistan politics, for the province top slot.
Bizenjo had contested the 2002 general election after his father, former chief minister Mir Majeed Bizenjo, became disqualified to contest polls due to the pre-condition for a lawmaker to hold a bachelor’s degree. He got fame for obtaining only 544 votes in the 2008 election and yet getting elected.
Compared to his father, Quddus Bizenjo is shrewd enough to exploit the militancy in his district in his favour and on each and every forum declared that he and his family stood against separatist elements mainly Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) leader. As a result he received much support and benefits from Islamabad.
After the 2018 general election, Bizenjo was “accommodated” as the Balochistan Assembly speaker but he had constantly been trying to instigate the party MPAs for paving his way to the top position.
However, he accelerated his campaign against Kamal after he ordered the Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT) to launch an investigation into a Rs8 billion road project. The team later found misappropriation of funds during execution of the project.
Since the army was deployed in the restive parts of Awaran district to quell insurgency, the 41 Division of the army also conducted an investigation into the project and pointed out embezzlement on large scale and use of substandard material.
Meanwhile, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani – who also belongs to the province – was also angry with Jam Kamal over postings and transfers of bureaucrats in the province and the CM’s refusal to approve some construction contracts worth billions of rupees.
Sanjrani, who is considered an expert in political wheeling and dealing joined hands with Bizenjo and planned to oust Jam Kamal using his cordial relations with PM Imran Khan and the power that be.
In a leaked video that went viral on social media, Sanjrani could be heard telling his friends that after stepping down as the Senate chairman he plans to contest at a provincial assembly seat in the 2023 general election with a view to become the next CM of Balochistan.
Now Bizenjo was to once again lead a rebellion against chief minister Jam Kamal with the help of lawmakers from both the ruling BAP, its coalition partners as well as 24 opposition members.
Though Sanjrani had been shuttling between Quetta and Islamabad during the crisis in Balochistan apparently to rescue Jam Kamal, sources privy to the matter claim that he was in fact the prime character behind the rebellion, which succeeded on October 24.
During the Jam Kamal led government, the ministers and advisers were unable to exercise “complete freedom” and most of them wanted to get rid of him. That is why they gathered under the umbrella of Bizenjo and Sadiq Sunjrani.
After Bizenjo took over the office, few of the ministers managed to get “lucrative” ministries while majority of them as well as advisers and parliamentary secretaries are not happy with their portfolios.
The main complaint of ministers and advisers against their Chief Minister Jam Kamal was that he was unfriendly with them particularly after “dusk” and that he kept them waiting for long hours in his office. But none of them made a single complaint of bad governance, mismanagement and corruption.
The split mandate in Balochistan has always caused weak administration, bad governance and corrupt practices. The Balochistan Assembly members have often been tagged as a “saleable commodity” for their wheeling and dealing ahead of the Senate elections.
Except for lawmakers from nationalist parties and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, most electable lawmakers in Balochistan Assembly have been changing their loyalties to the detriment of the province.
