The Balochistan Assembly elected Jam Mir Kamal Khan Alyani, chairman of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) as the 16th leader of the house on Saturday.

The election for the leader of the house was conducted through a secret ballot in which Alyani secured 39 votes against the opposition's nominee, Mir Younus Aziz Zehri, who secured 20 votes.

Apart from his own party, the BAP chief had the support of the Awami National Party, the Hazara Democratic Party, the Jamhoori Watan Party, the Balochistan National Party-Awami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

Alyani is the third member of his family to hold the post of Balochistan CM. The BAP chief's father, Jam Muhammad Yousaf, had held the post from 2002 to 2007, while his grandfather, Jam Mir Ghullam Qadir Khan, had remained chief minister of Balochistan during non-party elections in 1985.

Alyani served as nazim for district Lasbela during Pervez Musharraf's regime. In 2013, he was given the position of state minister for petroleum and natural resources in the PML-N government.

He continued to serve in Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's cabinet after Nawaz Sharif's ouster, but resigned from his post and membership of the PML-N in April this year. Later in May, Alyani was elected chief of the BAP.

Alyani was born on January 1, 1973 in Lasbela district of Balochistan.