Protesting the administrative changes in his constituency, PML-Q’s Balochistan Assembly Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhootani resigned from office late on Friday.
In a resignation letter sent to Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, the speaker said he had resigned to protest administrative changes in his constituency, Lasbela, on the behest of his political rivals Jam Mohammad Yousaf and sitting MPA Pir Abdul Qadir Al-Gillani.
Sources close to Bhootani said the main bone of contention between him and the chief minister was the transfer of the Lasbela deputy commissioner without his consent.
They said Bhootani was of the opinion that although the changes in the administration were the prerogative of the chief minister, he should have been taken into confidence before the change, which would ultimately favour his political rivals in the constituency.
No comment was available from Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani or his press secretary.
However, an emergency meeting of parliamentary leaders of the allied parties was called at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to discuss the situation.
Speaker Bhootani was on a week-long tour of Dhaka when the administrative changes took place.
The sources said the chief minister had taken some decisions regarding the speakers’ constituency on behest of his political opponents, without taking the speaker into confidence.