Balochistan Awami Party senior leader Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali was on Saturday elected provincial assembly speaker unopposed as no other lawmaker submitted nomination papers for the post, reported Aaj News.

According to the report, the Balochistan Assembly Secretariat was scheduled to announce the victory of the newly-elected office bearer at 3pm today.

Jamali, a senior politicial of the province, previously served as Balochistan's chief minister in 1998. He also served as Senate deputy chairperson in 2006 when he was associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Q during General Pervez Musharraf's rule. Later, Jamali switched affiliations to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and was elected as speaker of the provincial assembly in 2013.

In 2018, when the PML-N dissidents toppled the then Balochistan government and established a new party, BAP, shortly before the Senate elections; Jamali joined the party.

It is pertinent to mention the position of the provincial assembly speaker was vacant after Balochistan newly-elected Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo resigned from the post and took oath of the new office on Friday.