Re: 250 opposition MPs quit in Pakistan
Balochistan PA survives - PML Q coalition has a majority
http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/02/nat8.htm
Twenty-five members of the Balochistan assembly belonging to parties in the All Parties Democratic Movement will take out a procession here on Tuesday before submitting their resignation to Speaker Jamal Shah Kakar. However, the speaker himself, who belongs to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), will not resign from the assembly. “Resigning from the assembly is our final decision,” MMA’s parliamentary leader Maulana Abdul Wasay, who is a senior minister in the provincial coalition government, said here on Monday.
The lawmakers have handed over their resignation to their party leaders.
In the house of 61 members, 26 belong to parties in the All Parties Democratic Movement – 17 to the MMA, five to the National Party and four to the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party. Two opposition legislators, Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani and Shafiq Ahmed Khan, belong to the PPP. Another opposition member, Mir Balach Khan Marri, has not been attending the assembly session for a long time. The resignation of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal members will not affect the provincial government because the Pakistan Muslim League will still have the support of 32 legislators.
Besides its 25 members, three members of the Balochistan National Party (Awami group) and four of the Jamhoori Watan Party support the coalition government. The JWP members joined hands with the PML-Q after the death of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. They had met President Gen Pervez Musharraf during his recent visit to Quetta and assured him of their support in the presidential election. The sources said if assemblies were not dissolved after the presidential election, the JWP MPAs would be given portfolios in the cabinet vacated by MMA ministers.