ISLAMABAD - After failing to get hold of the party dissidents in the Balochistan Assembly, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi rushed back to Islamabad where after meeting the party chief Nawaz Sharif, it was decided to get Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri step down instead of facing the no-trust motion.
Sources in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) informed The Nation that in the meeting with Nawaz Sharif and other senior party leaders at the Punjab House on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi briefed them about his meetings with the people in Balochistan and the true perspective of all what was going on.
Sources said that it was agreed upon in the meeting that to keep hold on the PML-N dissidents in the Balochistan Assembly things should be tackled before tabling of the no-trust move, as in this way face saving would be for both the party leadership as well as the annoyed party MPs.
So the decision to get resignation from Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri was made to save the party from disintegration as majority of the party MPAs were in the group standing against Zehri, sources said.
Sources further said that senior party leaders from Balochistan were now tasked to approach the dissidents and control the things in the process of formation of the next government in the province with the PML-N man in the slot of chief minister again.
Sources in the PML-N said that former premier Nawaz Sharif was very much annoyed over the way the JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had ditched them and wanted the party’s Balochistan chapter to keep them out of the new set-up to be formed in the next few days.
On the other hand, Leader of Opposition in the Balochistan Assembly Maulana Abdul Wasay was in full control of things and the dissidents would be finalising the new set-up in which they would try to keep the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the National Party out of government, the proposition not at all acceptable to the PML-N central leadership.
One of the frontrunners for the slot of chief minister is the PML-N leader and former home minister Sarfraz Bugti and hopefully the rest of the group would agree on his name as he was in the good books of powerful establishment in the province.
Sources in the PML-N ruled out imposition of governor’s rule in the province as the move could jeopardise the upcoming Senate elections, which the PML-N could not afford as after these elections the PML-N would come in a strong position in the Upper House.
Soon after the resignation by Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri the dissident group leader Sarfraz Bugti welcomed the move and reiterated his allegiance with the PML-N and said that he and other party MPs would stay loyal to the party.