PPP’s Sarfraz Bugti elected ‘unopposed’ as Balochistan chief minister

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti has been elected as Balochistan chief minister (CM) unopposed as no other contestant had submitted nomination papers besides him, ARY News reported on Friday.

Sarfraz Bugti, who served as former caretaker interior minister, submitted four nomination papers for Balochistan’s chief minister’s slot to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office.

The election for the Balochistan chief minister position was scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday). He has been elected unopposed as no other lawmaker has submitted nominations paper for the slot.

PPP and PML-N had jointly nominated Sarfraz Bugti as their candidate for the top slot of the leader of the house in line with the formula decided to form government at federal level and coalition government in Balochistan.

The politician had resigned as the caretaker interior minister in December last year and joined the Bilawal Bhutto-led party.

Earlier, the newly elected MPAs of the Balochistan Assembly took their oaths of membership in session chaired by the presiding officer Engineer Zamrud Khan.

The 51 members, elected on general seats, who took oath today include members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers who have emerged as the largest parties in the 65-member House.

The assembly includes 11 reserved seats for women and three for minorities while the PPP has 11 seats and PML-N has 10 seats.

Meanwhile, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) have 10 and five seats, respectively.