SOURCE: DAWN.COM
QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minster Nawab Aslam Raisani has sacked provincial Food Minister Mir Ali Madad Jatak of the Pakistan People’s Party, with immediate effect.
A spokesman for the Chief Minister’s Secretariat announced the decision on Thursday night without giving any reason. ‘The chief minister has removed Mr Jatak from his office,’ he told Dawn, adding that he had not been authorised to provide details.
After the removal of the food minister the strength of the PPP-lead coalition cabinet has fallen to 47.
Zakat Minister Agha Irfan Karim of the PPP announced late in the night that he would quit the provincial cabinet in protest against the removal of Mr Jatak.
‘I will resign as a protest against the decision of the chief minister,’ he told reporters on telephone.
According to sources, Mr Jatak was sacked because of his ‘continuous violation of the party and cabinet discipline’.
They said the chief minister and several members of his cabinet had taken notice of Mr Jatak’s statements in the media against the coalition government and provincial leadership of the PPP.
In a statement published in Thursday’s newspapers, Mr Jatak criticised the chief minister and said his government was ‘without any power and is being run by bureaucracy’.
He also said that he had formed a group for political change in the coalition government and the new chief minister would be from the PPP.
The sources said the chief minister had taken the decision of Mr Jatak’s removal after consultations with coalition partners.
It has been learnt that a PPP minister without portfolio will take over the charge of the food ministry on Friday.
Mir Madad Jatak was elected MPA on a PPP ticket. Chief Minister Raisani included him in his cabinet as food minister, but his differences with the provincial PPP leadership after Senate elections led to his removal from the cabinet.
Mr Jatak accused the chief minister of working against the PPP in the province. ‘I am thankful to the chief minister for my removal from the cabinet as I was a powerless minister,’ he remarked.
'It is better to sit outside the cabinet than work as a powerless minister,' he told Dawn, adding he had already indicated that Mr Raisani, who had been elected on a PPP ticket, was working against the interest of the PPP, giving importance to the bureaucracy and ignoring ministers.
He said he would consult his group before taking any decision.
SOURCE: DAWN.COM
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