QUETTA: Balochistan Assembly Speaker Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani has appointed Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) as new leader of the opposition in the assembly with immediate effect.

According to an official notification issued here on Thursday by the assembly’s secretary, the speaker has declared Mr Ziaratwal as opposition leader in the Balochistan Assembly.

Mr Ziaratwal will replace Maulana Abdul Wasey of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) who had been holding the office since 2013.

However, Engineer Zamarak Khan Piralizai will continue to work as the deputy opposition leader.

Pandemonium witnessed after chair didn’t allow opposition MPAs to speak

The notification said: “Con­se­quent upon command of majority of 23 members of the opposition in the Baloch­istan Provin­cial Asse­mbly, and pursuance of Sec­tion 2(d) of the Baloch­istan Pro­vin­cial Assembly members (Sala­ries and allowan­ces Act) 1975, the honourable spea­ker Balochistan Ass­embly please to declare Mr. Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, MPA as leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Ass­embly with immediate effect.”

The 23 members of the assembly, who submitted an application to the speaker asking her to appoint Mr Ziaratwal as the opposition leader, belong to PkMAP and National Party (NP).

They had claimed in the application that Maulana Wasey had lost the support of the majority of members on the opposition benches.

The PkMAP has 13 while the NP 11 members in the house of 85 members.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan Assembly witnessed heated debate between members on Thursday when the speaker did not allow opposition members to respond to the speech of Obaidullah Babit of PkMAP who condemned registration of an FIR against some Pakhtun leaders.

Mr Babit took the floor on a point of order and expressed his strong reaction over registration of the FIR against the chief of the newly-formed Pakhtun Tahafooz Movement, Manzoor Pashtoon.

He said the Pakhtun leaders had not delivered any objectionable speeches and that they just spoke about atrocities being meted out to their people.

When Mr Piralizai tried to begin his speech in response to Mr Babit’s remarks, Mr Ziaratwal also started speaking. The speaker asked both members to sit down on their seats, saying that they were speaking without the permission of the chair.

However, they did not stop and exchanged hot wards.

The house adopted a joint resolution which paid tributes to human rights activist and lawyer late Asma Jahangir.

The condolence resolution was moved by Rehmat Baloch and Yasmin Lehri.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018