Why has state minister Hakeem Baloch resigned?

Karachi

If you are a politician, the party you contest elections from to the ministry you hold and consequently what you deliver to the people of your constituency is what makes you a force to reckon with come next elections. All of this, it seems, has gone wrong for Minister of State for Communication Abdul Hakeem Baloch, who tendered his resignation from the ministry on Thursday.

Once a Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) frontman from Malir, Baloch who contested the 2013 general elections on Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s (PML-N) ticket had since not only been facing problems pertaining to his ministerial appointments but also his incapability to deliver to his constituency, comprising of Karachi’s rural and coastal areas.

Only last week was the minister heard mentioning that he was contemplating tendering his resignation.

Three years since the elections, Baloch finally tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister; a move his aides claim was to contain the damage done to his political career.  

The minister is also said to be considering parting ways with the PML-N and rejoining the PPP - which he left after developing differences with the leadership over distribution of tickets.   

‘Toothless’ minister  

Often termed the PML-N’s ‘toothless’ minister, political analysts had initially expected the party’s supremo Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to hand over the ministry of Ports and Shipping to Baloch - a portfolio Karachi traditionally keeps. But to everybody’s surprise, the ministry was offered to Kamran Michael, a senator from Punjab, while Baloch was made the Minister of State for Railway. However, with Khawaja Saad Rafique – one of PML-N’s main men – serving as the federal minister for railway, Baloch was nothing more than a ‘dummy’ state minister.

Following several protests and complaints, Sharif then appointed Baloch has the Minister of State for Communication, in June 2014.

But to his disappointment, the second ministry also did not have much space to offer to Baloch for the man in the driving seat for this ministry was apparently the prime minister’s son-in-law, Captain (retd) Safdar.

He was, by his close friends, said to have reached out to Sharif with his grievances, the most recent being in April this year, but the latter did not bother addressing them.

An official in the ministry in Islamabad confirmed that, “Frustrated, Baloch had not been sitting in his office for over a year now in protest,” besides also boycotting the stone laying ceremony of the Karachi-Lahore Motorway in March 2015; despite it being held in his constituency.

In the following year he went on to boycott several inaugural ceremonies organised by the National Highway Authority (NHA).

A few sources close to Baloch claimed, that he had once again pinned his hopes on getting the Ministry of Ports and Shipping as the cabinet was recently reshuffled, but this time National Party’s (NP) Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo made away with the portfolio.

Defeat in LG polls 

Contesting local government polls for district council Karachi (DCK) – comprising his constituency and other rural areas of the city – Baloch’s patience was tested once again after his 2013 voters turned their back on him since he had been unable to carry out any development in the area.

He had formed an anti-PPP alliance, Awami Ittehad Karachi (AIK), also known as Rajooni Ittehad in Sindhi, along with other political bigwigs of the area Jam Abdul Karim Bijar, Haji Shafi Jamot and Saleem Baloch Kalmati. 

“Bijar, Jamot and Kalmati won seats from their respective areas – mainly Sindhi speaking neighbourhoods while Baloch could not win from areas which were once considered his stronghold,” said Sami Memon, a Malir-based veteran journalist. 

“The results were evident of the fact that Baloch had lost the popularity he once enjoyed.”

Concurring with Memon’s approach, one of his close associates, Khurshid Anwar, believed that the three-year long political acquaintance with PML-N diminished Baloch’s political career, and now he was being pressurised to quit the ministry.

“Baloch’s sidelining from the party proved disastrous for PML-N’s politics which claimed to be a federal political party,” he added.

Baloch: A profile

Abdul Hakeem Baloch had started his political career from the PPP and had since his association with the party always remained in the power corridors.

He was known for having carried out a record number of developmental projects in his constituency during his time as provincial minister and chairman DCK.

However, in 2002 general polls he developed differences with the PPP leadership over distribution of tickets and formed a Malir-based electoral alliance against the PPP candidates.

In that election, Baloch could not win the NA-258 seat, a traditional PPP constituency, but managed to bag more than 27,000 votes against the PPP candidate Sher Muhammad Baloch, who secured 38,225 votes. 

In 2008, he rejoined the PPP and contested polls on the party’s ticket from PS-126 (Gadap town-Gulshan-e-Iqbal), but lost to MQM’s Faisal Sabzwari. 

However, before the 2013 general polls, he joined the PML-N and won NA-258, defeating PPP’s district president Raja Abdul Razzaq, and influential tribal chieftain Jam Abdul Karim Bijar.

Baloch was credited to win the only national assembly seat from Sindh on the PML-N ticket.

One of his colleagues Haji Shafi Jamot also won the PS-129 but another associate Saleem Baloch Kalmati lost by a low margin in PS-130.