Balochistan parties bicker over cabinet

Pakistan's restive Balochistan province has been doing without a cabinet of reasonable size even after three months since the elections.
The coalition partners in the Balochistan government have failed to implement the Murree agreement agreed to by the PML-N, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and National Party about share in the provincial cabinet.
The Balochistan chapter of PML-N wants to be given the maximum number of ministries, saying it has the right for a big share in the cabinet because the PkMAP has got the office of governor and the NP the slot of the chief minister, Express News reported.

Sources in the PkMAP and NP said the PML-N's Balochistan leadership was an "obstacle" in cabinet formation because it wanted to give less share to its coalition partners in the cabinet, it said.
However, the PML-N leaders said that coalition partners, after getting offices of the governor and the chief minister, were insisting on giving only six ministries and two advisers' slots to them, which was an injustice with the party.
Meanwhile, under the 18th amendment of the constitution, the provincial government is bound to form less number of standing committees in the provincial assembly, but the government of Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has found a way out and decided to get a bill passed in the assembly introducing amendments to rules and regulations of the legislature and after which it would be empowered to form 15 standing committees in the house.

"The provincial government wants to include the members who will not become part of the cabinet in the standing committees," sources were quoted as saying in the report.