Balochistan’s political games

While Bizenjo has yet to come to grips with governance, his predecessor is busy lobbying in Islamabad

Nearly two months have passed since Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo took over as Balochistan chief minister after leading a successful rebellion against his predecessor, Jam Kamal, but no improvement is visible in the province in terms of governance.

So far the Bizenjo government hasn’t done anything except transferring and posting some government employees. Unlike Kamal, who is remembered as an active and visionary chief minister, Bizenjo is also not showing much dynamism.

At the end of a recent marathon sit-in in Gwadar, Bizenjo did go to the port city to announce a formal agreement with the protestors.  He as a goodwill gesture also distributed money among some of the women participants of the sit-in.

However, this public appearance of Bizenjo backfired as Amanullah Kunrani, the Supreme Court Bar Association former president, filed a writ petition in Balochistan High Court against distribution of cash among the protestors, requesting the court to disqualify the chief minister.

Meanwhile, Jam Kamal has become active after losing his office in October this year and has started lobbying in Islamabad to once again win over the powers that be, raising the question if the Quddus government would be able to complete its term – till July 2023.

The majority members of the parliamentary group of the ruling Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) revolted against Kamal in September. After a tug-of-war between Kamal and Bizenjo that continued for one and a half months, the former – who hails from Lasbela district of Balochistan – stepped down.

In the house of 65, BAP has a parliamentary group of 24 members while it has the support of other parties including the PTI (7 members); the ANP (4 members), BNP-Awami (3 members); Hazara Democratic Party (2 members) and the JWP (1 member).

The opposition, which is the strongest in the Balochistan Assembly’s history, comprises 24 members. Eleven of them belong to the JUI-F; 10 to the BNP-M and one each to the PML-N and PkMAP. The last, 24th, opposition lawmaker was an independent candidate and did not subscribe to any party.

Interestingly, during its 51-year history, no chief minister in Balochistan except Jam Yousaf – the father of Jam Kamal – has ever completed his 5-year-term, thanks to the electables who quickly change their loyalties for personal gains or due to pressure from the powers that be.

Now it is uncertain whether Bizenjo would remain in the office for the rest of his tenure or whether he would again be replaced by Kamal, or some other leader like Salah Bhootani or Nawabzada Tariq Magsi.

Bizenjo’s struggle

Bizenjo belongs to Jhao Tehsil of District Awaran. He and his family do not hold any influence in the rest of tehsil Awaran and tehsil Mushkey. Awaran is situated in the south-west of Khuzdar; east of Kech and Punjgur districts; north of Gwadar; south of Washuk and the west of Lasbela.

Bizenjo is the son of senior politician late Mir Abdul Majeed Bizenjo who was continuously elected from his constituency to the provincial assembly in every election since 1985.

Majeed’s family shot to fame when his elder brother, Abdul Kareem Bizenjo, launched the Shashak movement in the 1970s against the 6% tax imposed by the tribal chieftains on every farmer.

There used to be a reign of terror in Awaran, the remotest area of Balochistan, where no one could dare to stand up against tribal elders and chieftains.

Majeed – when disqualified to take part in elections during the Musharraf era due to a pre-condition allowing only graduates to run in election – made his son, Quddus, to contest the 2002 polls When Quddus got elected to the provincial assembly, Majeed retired from active politics.

Bizenjo lost in the 2008 election but was declared winner in the 2013 elections despite obtaining only 544 votes. In early 2018, Bizenjo spearheaded a similar rebellion against PML-N’s Sanaulllah Zehri and remained Balochistan chief minister for five months till July 2018 polls.

Prior to the 2018 rebellion, the then chief minister, Sanaullah Zahri, had hosted a public meeting for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz in Quetta.  This move had invoked the ire of the establishment.

Later, out of the 25 MPAs in the treasury benches, twenty three (23) had turned against Zehri and nominated Bizenjo as their leader. The rise of Quddus to the top had spawned many jokes, one of them saying that the weakest lawmaker with only 544 votes was ruling the most problematic province.

After the 2018 elections, Bizenjo did his best to get elected as the next chief minister, but “Islamabad people” had named Jam Kamal for the top slot.

However, right after the 2018 general election, Bizenjo had started hatching conspiracies against chief minister Jam Kamal with the backing of Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

Sanjrani, the blue-eyed boy

Sanjarani, was born into the family of Asif Sunjrani, a PTCL officer, started trying his luck in the construction business and later managed to get government contracts to make a fortune.

He was known as an assistant to Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, a PPP senator and a close confidant of former president Asif Ali Zardari during the PPP’s rule from 2008-2013.

Sanjrani had the responsibility to look after Raisani’s guests at the former senator’s suite in the Balochistan House. He came to limelight when he was appointed as coordinator to former premier Yousuf Raza Gillani in the Prime Minister House.

He is so smart that he continued as coordinator in the Prime Minister House even after 2013 elections during the PML-N government. After doing much work in Islamabad, he contested Senate elections and easily secured a seat in general category, but reportedly after spending around Rs350 million.

Ahmad Khan Khilji, the owner of a construction company, and Zahir Khan and Brothers known as ZKB reportedly also spent Rs400 million for buying votes for securing Sanjrani’s seat in the upper house.

Sanjrani using his Baloch card for the position of Senate chairman managed to get on the top of the list of candidates for this slot with the help of the establishment and ultimately entered the office not only for a three years term but also for the second term.

In a leaked video, he could be heard saying his next target is to become Balochistan chief minister in 2023. The video, in which Sanjrani was sitting among his close friends, was allegedly recorded soon after a failed attempt by the opposition to oust him from the position of the Senate chairman.

Sanjrani had enjoyed much influence in the previous tenure of Abdul Quddus Bizenjo.

He, however, had differences with Jam Kamal who had refused to leave district Chaghi completely at his Sanjrani’s whims by ignoring the local MPA, Mir Arif Jam Mohammad Hasani.

Kamal also had refused to give Sanjrani’s company a contract worth Rs20 billion.

Sanjrani and Senator Abdul Qadir – who is said to have spent Rs700 million to buy 11 members of the Balochistan Assembly to win the Senate election – are business partners and petty contractors of the ZKB, a construction company which built Orange Line train and Metro Bus projects in Punjab.