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PML-Q candidate elected Baluchistan chief minister

K J M Varma in Islamabad

Pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League--Quaid-e-Azam on Sunday clinched support of the Muttahida Majlis-e Amal, an alliance of religious parties, to get its pro-US leader elected as the chief minister of the sensitive Baluchistan province.

Jam Muhammad Yousuf bagged 47 votes in the 65-member Baluchistan assembly.

In what appears to be a far reaching political deal between the PML-Q and the MMA with the reported understanding of not to rock the minority government at the Centre of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the MMA voted for Yousuf in a four-cornered contest.

Though the chief minister's slot has been given to the PML-Q, the pro-Taliban and anti-American MMA, which has already established its government in the neighbouring North West Frontier Province, is expected to a wield a great deal of influence in both provinces, which borders Afghanistan.

The provincial MMA leaders are expected to get influential ministries in the Baluchistan government.

The deal between the PML-Q and the MMA is also important for Jamali because Baluchistan is his home province and he is also desperately trying to woo the MMA to support his minority government at the Centre.

Jamali, after holding talks with top MMA leaders Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Saturday in Peshsawar, said he has agreed to one of the alliance's demand that Friday should be declared as a holiday.

Previous Nawaz Sharief government abolished the holiday on Friday.

"I will review the executive orders passed by Sharief and soon be announcing Friday as the weekly holiday on the demand of the MMA," Jamali said, while attending the swearing in ceremony of MMA chief minister for NWFP, Akram Durrani.

Durrani has already created a stir by promising to ban liquor and gambling bars as well as music and videos in buses.

Allaying fears of the US and the West that MMA provincial governments would hamper the joint US-Pakistan crackdown on the Taliban and the Al Qaida forces in Baluchistan and NWFP, Jamali said he did not foresee any problems in Pakistan remaining the frontline state to fight terrorism.

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