A group of the Balochistan Awami Party's (BAP) disgruntled members and some from its coalition partners in the Balochistan government on Tuesday gave Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani a deadline of 6pm tomorrow (Wednesday) to resign from his post.

The demand comes days after Alyani stepped down as the party's president, with Dawn reporting at the time that he had been facing opposition from some ministers and lawmakers in the party who had demanded that he resign as the chief minister. According to the report, the disgruntled BAP members had taken the stance that they did not want to work with Alyani anymore.

On Tuesday, Balochistan Finance Minister Zahoor Buledi from among the disgruntled members said during a conference that 14 to 15 BAP members and some from other parties in the province's coalition government had expressed a lack of confidence in the chief minister.

"The reason for this lack of confidence is the growing unrest in the province," he added.

Buledi said Alyani had earlier been given two weeks to resign as the chief minister, "but instead of resigning, he tried to give an impression in his social media posts that there were differences among us."

He was referring to tweets by Alyani, wherein he had said: "[The] BAP is our party and inshallah we shall resolve our matters ourselves. I would again say, this is the most democratic party in Pakistan. Differences come, we discuss them, debate on them and Alhamdulillah solve them too."

Alyani had added that till October 3, he had met nearly six of the BAP's lawmakers "in a very good atmosphere and inshallah [we will] solve all [the issues]”.

"Some individuals wanted to create more differences and wanted us to react on each other, but Alhamdulillah we all have shown great responsibility and respect to each other.”

Buledi also referred to a no-trust move against Alyani by the opposition in Balochistan earlier this month, saying that in such a scenario, "it is better for the chief minister to resign.”

Balochistan Social Welfare Minister Mir Asadullah Baloch further stated that Alyani had failed to fulfil the commitments made to the allies in the provincial government, and his resignation had been demanded in the "wider interest of the province".

"Jam Kamal will be given time till 6pm tomorrow. If he does not resign by tomorrow, we will consider other options, including [a] no-confidence motion."

Balochistan MPA Naseebullah Murree also spoke on the occasion, reierating the demand for Alyani's resignation.

"The chief minister is requested to have mercy on the party and the province and resign," he said.

The signs of the ongoing political crisis in Balochistan were first seen in June this year, when opposition members had camped outside the provincial assembly's building for days in protest against the government led by Alyani for its refusal to allocate development funds for their constituencies in the budget.

The protest had led to mayhem and police had later booked 17 opposition lawmakers in connection with the incident.

Following that, the opposition had moved a no-confidence motion against Alyani.

In this connection, Dawn had reported at the time that Alyani was also facing opposition from within his own party over some issues, especially ministers’ powers of posting and transfers and allocation of development funds.

Sardar Mohammad Saleh Bhootani, who was local bodies minister, had resigned due to differences with the chief minister, the report had said, adding that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, had also submitted his resignation as minister for higher education after making a fiery speech on the floor of the house over differences with the chief minister.

Eventually, on Friday, Alyani announced that he was resigning as the BAP's president.

Following that, a meeting of the core committee of the BAP had been called, during which serious concern had been expressed over the political crisis in the province and the situation created due to anger of the party’s disgruntled group and its demand for Alyani's resignation.