ISLAMABAD: The federal government has no working relationship, liaison or contact with Balochistan administration under the new chief minister, Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, since the “coup” against Nawab Sanaullah Zehri was orchestrated a couple of weeks back.
Bizenjo, who was sworn in as the chief minister on Jan 13 after his election by the Balochistan Assembly, is yet to receive even the traditional congratulatory message from Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Once, Bizenjo publicly complained that he is still to get greetings from the prime minister. However, there may be a face-to-face contact between Abbasi and Bizenjo when the prime minister will likely to visit Gwadar on Monday to review projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). A day before the (abortive) scheduled voting on the no-confidence resolution against Zehri, Abbasi had flown to Quetta to assess the ground situation and do the damage control. He had invited the “rebellious” PML-N lawmakers, but none of them paid any heed to his call. It is not known whether or not Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak belonging to the PTI and his counterpart in Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah hailing from the PPP have also greeted Bizenjo.
The PTI has been unconcerned about the abrupt change in Balochistan for having no say in the provincial assembly. The PPP has been satisfied with the replacement of the PML-N chief minister. It is believed to have played some role, though unspecified, in the crisis although it has no representation whatsoever in the provincial assembly.
While the federal government has nothing to do with Chief Minister Bizenjo because of the way he was elected throwing out the PML-N nominee, the PML-Q heartily praised him for his association with it. Senior PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi especially went to Quetta to show solidarity with him. This visit apart, it is a hard fact that Bizenjo’s election also came as a surprise to the PML-Q, which never held even a single meeting in which it nominated him as its candidate for the post of the chief minister. It has five lawmakers in the Balochistan Assembly.
Bizenjo has vowed to sort out most problems of Balochistan in a short period of his incumbency. In different cases, he will require the cooperation of the federal government without which he may not be able to deliver what he has announced.
Since his resignation as the chief minister after the PML-N’s provincial parliamentary party slipped away and joined the “rebels”, Zehri has not been heard or seen in public. He was not present in the assembly when Bizenjo’s election was held. He has preferred to remain quiet for his own reasons. However, after the filing of the no-trust motion against him, it was reported that his secretary has been arrested on unknown corruption charges. It was not explained who nabbed him and on what allegations. After Zehri’s quitting the office, nothing is known about these accusations, which seemed to have been hurled by those behind the move to scare Zehri with the message that he should go home silently.
The PML-N was the largest party in the Balochistan Assembly, which weaned away from the central entity led by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif during this change of guard. At no stage had the provincial party even slightly mentioned to the central leadership its annoyance with Zehri. Its extreme action had shocked the party president and other top leaders of the PML-N. For this precise reason, Nawaz Sharif refused to involve himself in this affair.
After that, the PML-N did not even think of proceeding against the defectors under the anti-floor crossing provision of the Constitution. It preferred to leave the provincial party on its own and refrained from any interference or exercising any influence on it on the ground that it will be futile. Another reason was that if these legislators were actually unseated due to its move, the way be paved for dissolution of the provincial assembly. The no-trust move was originally sponsored by the JUI-F, PML-Q and some smaller groups. It was supported by a group of PML-N dissidents.
Since his elevation as chief minister, Bizenjo apparently stands alone simply because of his election in a mysterious manner. Grapevine has it that the actual objective behind the plan to oust Zehri and install Bizenjo was to get the assembly dissolved at the will of the schemer.
However, Bizenjo categorically made it clear after his election that he will not wrap up the legislature. If the assembly stays, a major damage that has been inflicted to the PML-N is that its entire parliamentary party has broken away apart from the loss of at least four Senate seats that it was sure to get from Balochistan in March. Since the loyalties of the members of the Balochistan assembly with the parties on whose tickets they have been elected are wavering and shifty, it is difficult to predict which political entity will be able to get how many senators from this province.