Seraiki province: ‘Province on a linguistic basis will spark anarchy’
Speaking against the creation of a Seraiki province, former information minister Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani said the prime minister is sparking anarchy by supporting a new province on a linguistic basis.
“The president should take notice of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s actions to create unrest, only to make his son the chief minister,” said the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) senator at a press conference.
In March this year, the prime minister said the creation of a Seraiki province would be part of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s manifesto in the next elections.
The creation of a Seraiki province is a long standing demand of people of the area. Durrani said the prime minister should learn lessons from the situation prevailing in Karachi. “In an attempt to get political mileage, the premier may face irreparable loss to his political career,” he warned.
During the press conference, senators from Balochistan and the Fata announced their support to make Bahawalpur a province, demanding its status to be restored through executive order.
“Not only is there complete consensus on restoring the provincial status of Bahawalpur, the Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (Safron) has endorsed the demand after going through historical records,” added Durrani.
He said making Bahawalpur a part of Seraiki province is against the wishes of the people of Bahawalpur and would be an autocratic step, not a democratic one.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31th, 2011.
COMMENTS (8)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1732071267-0/lana-(2)1732071267-0-405x300.webp "article")
1727242355-0/Diddy-(1)1727242355-0-165x106.webp "article")
1732063440-0/elon-(3)1732063440-0-165x106.webp "article")
1731749026-0/Copy-of-Untitled-(3)1731749026-0-270x192.webp "cutting edge defence tech goes on display")
Immigrants should have brought some land along with them in their cart wheels when they were migrating to Pakistan. They have no right to demand a province on some one else’s land. As far as Urdu language is concerned, it has lost its utility. It is better we follow our own languages alongside English . As far as Seraiki Province is concerned, it should be through constitutional means and not imposed.
The need of the hour is division of the province along administrative lines rather than linguistic and ethnic divides. provinces are so big that proper administration can not be done and corruption can run rampant in smaller areas.
Karachi is very unique, its a metropolitan city and quite different from rest of the Sindh. Perhaps, it would have been better if Karachi was a province of its own with Urdu as its main language and english as a second language due its highly competitive, progressive business and economic characteristic. It is a multi ethnic city with equal opportunities for all. Karachi should be a true respresentation of national pride. Karachi represents the city of Quaid, the founder of Pakistan. Karachi deserves to stand on its own merits.
Guys, why can't we live together as one nation ? What are we going to achieve by dividing our motherland into small small provinces ????????????? We are all Pakistanis first and then Punjabi, Sindhi, Balouch, Pashtoon, Sariki, Muhajir, etc.
We should concentrate on building our nation, getting rid of corruption, nepotism, extremism, injustice, illiteracy, poverty and above all corrupt leaders/politicians.
the muhajir community of karachi should get a separate province of their own before any other new province is made.why doesn't ppp make a new province in sindh ?
the ppp should divide sindh first.the urdu,gujrati,memoni speaking people of karachi and hyderabad want their separate province.the migrant community have established most of the industries and businesses.since ppp is in power in sindh it would be much easier for ppp to make a new province out of sindh first ,then it can go about its plan of breaking up punjab.