President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday appointed Justice (r) Amanullah Khan Yasinzai as the governor of Balochistan.
According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division, President Alvi has appointed Yasinzai as the Balochistan governor on the recommendation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Speaking to a local news channel after his appointment, the former judge said that his main focus during governorship would be education, the betterment of security in the province and curbing the trust deficit between the province and Islamabad.
“Security has improved in the province quite a bit, there are fewer kidnappings for ransom here than other parts of the country and while sectarian violence incidents are also lessening, there is a need to work on them even more to eliminate the threat,” Yasinzai said.
Yasinzai has served as the chief justice of Balochistan High Court (BHC) from 2005 to 2009. He, along with four other judges of the BHC, resigned from his post apparently to avoid facing references in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
The former BHC chief justice had taken oath as a Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) judge when former president Pervez Musharraf declared an emergency on November 3, 2007. In 2009 references against Yasinzai were sent to the SJC in accordance with the July 31, 2009, judgement of the Supreme Court regarding PCO judges.
Yasinzai was born in the year 1954 in Quetta and completed his Bachelors’ and Master’s from Forman Christian College, Lahore. He started his law practice in 1981 and was appointed as judge of the BHC in 1997.