Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz leader and President Balochistan Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch announced his resignation from the party on Saturday over reservations with the party leadership.
According to details, the announcement came after some differences that developed between some politicians and the party leadership over not inviting the former Chief Minister of Balochistan Sanaullah Zehri in the Pakistan Democratic Movement rally in Quetta, few days earlier.
PDM’s Secretary General Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reportedly refused to invite Zehri after the consultation of party leadership. He allegedly said that Zehri has been travelling outside the country frequently for the past 2 years and has hardly stayed in Pakistan. Therefore, he was considered not fit to attend the gathering.
In another statement, the PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal claimed that the party leadership had decided against inviting Zehri into the gathering due the differences between him (Zehri) and the Balochistan National Party Mengal President Akhtar Mengal.
Akhtar Mengal, talking to a local news channel, said that Zehri is to blame for not being invited to the rally. He said that after the attack on Zehri’s convoy in 2013 that resulted in the death of his son, nephew and brother, Sanaullah Zehri had filed First Information Report against me, my father and Nawab Amanullah, a central member of the BNP-Mengal.
Mengal said that Nawab Amanullah was killed in an attack in 2019, and some factions blamed Zehri for it. “We had our political and tribal disagreements, and it was not becoming for us to vilify each other on the [PDM] stage”, he said.
Mengal further said that he feared that the disagreements between him and Zehri might disrupt the rally. “We put our reservations before the PML-N leadership and they made the decision.”
Abdul Qadir Baloch, who also served as a federal minister during the PML-N government, did not take the decision lightly. According to reports, he will formally announce his resignation from PML-N in a press conference soon.
Ahsan Iqbal told the media that Mr Baloch is free to resign if he wishes to.
There are also rumors that Sanaullah Zehri will also announce his resignation from the party alongside Qadir Baloch, but these rumors are not confirmed yet.