QUETTA: A senior member of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali, was elected unopposed as the Balochistan Assembly speaker on Saturday as no nomination papers were filed for any other candidate.
The governor of Balochistan had convened a meeting of the provincial assembly at 3pm on Saturday, during which a vote was to be taken for a new speaker. During that time five nomination papers were submitted for Jamali while no other candidate was nominated.
Balochistan Assembly secretary Tahir Shah said Jamali was elected as the speaker unopposed as per the assembly rules and there will be no voting in the assembly session at 3pm. Instead, the acting speaker will announce the elected speaker’s name, he shared.
The post had fallen vacant earlier this week after the previous speaker Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo stepped down as he was being considered for the office of the province’s chief executive. Bizenjo was sworn in as the Balochistan chief minister on Friday.
No member from the opposition benches registered to vote for the Leader of the House and did not participate in the poll. No candidate had filed nomination papers for the post of the Leader of the House except Bizenjo.
Jan Muhammad Jamali
Jamali hails from a political family in Balochistan. His father Noor Mohammad Jamali was a tribal leader as well as a politician. In 1988, he became a member of the provincial assembly on the ticket of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (Islamic Democratic Alliance).
In 1990, he yet again became a member of the Balochistan Assembly as an independent candidate and became a provincial minister in 1993. Jamali won the 1997 elections on a PML-N ticket. He also served as the chief minister of Balochistan from June 15, 1998, to October 12, 1999.
He participated in the 2013 elections on PML-N’s ticket and was successful. From June 2013 to 2015, he was the speaker of the Balochistan Assembly. He also served twice as deputy chairman of the Senate. Jamali joined the BAP in 2018.
