QUETTA: It has been 19 days since Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti was sworn in but he is yet to form a cabinet to start running the affairs of the province smoothly. In this regard, the provincial director general announced that another two weeks are needed to form the cabinet.
The restive province currently remains without a cabinet as provincial lawmakers link the delay in forming a cabinet to Senate elections on April 2. It is to be noted that a total of 57 legislators in the province administered the oath of office to Zamrak Khan Achakzai, who was appointed as the Speaker for the first session of the provincial legislature on 28 February.
The members who took the oath included elected lawmakers from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) among others.
Bugti, who was elected unopposed to the coveted post of CM, was sworn in on March 2 and faces challenges at the helm of the hydra as the province remains heavily affected by terrorism. Meanwhile, the Senate elections will be held next month, with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) releasing a revised list of candidates on the 26th of this month.
Candidates who wish to withdraw their nomination papers had until March 17 to do so. It is pertinent to mention here that after the expiry of the six-year term of the existing senators on Tuesday, 52 seats will become vacant in the upper house of the parliament.
However, the election will be held to elect 48 senators as 4 reserved seats for the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) which were abolished after the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
Voting will be held to elect members against seven general seats, two for women, two seats for technocrats including Ulema, and one seat each for non-Muslims from Sindh and Punjab. Besides, legislators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan would elect members against seven general seats, two for women and two seats for technocrats, including the Ulema. Members of the National Assembly will elect one general seat and one seat for technocrats, including Ulema from the federal capital, he added.
