New regions: Senate panel takes up issue of new provinces

PPP lawmaker agrees to seek views from provincial governments before discussing the issue in the committee.

ISLAMABAD:

The issue of carving out new provinces resurfaced on Thursday when a parliamentary panel sought opinion from lawmakers in local assemblies over redrawing the contentious boundaries.

The Senate standing committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights took up a constitutional amendment bill proposed by independent Senator Mohsin Khan Laghari seeking opinion from provincial legislatures over redrawing boundaries with the consent of districts affected by the new arrangement.

Interestingly, the issue that first made headlines during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government seemed on the back burner for Senator Kazim Khan, a PPP lawmaker, who heads the senate body.

Showing little interest, Kazim brushed the issue aside by saying that it was akin to direct intervention in the domain of the provincial assemblies.

However, the PPP lawmaker, agreed to seek views from provincial governments on the subject before discussing the issue in the committee.  Delving into the debate, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz stalwart, Raja Zafarul Haq cautioned that provinces were sensitive about the issue and it should be dealt with extreme care.

The amendment proposed by Senator Laghari states, “Parliament may by law, carve out or create new provinces from existing limits of an existing province or redraw the boundaries of more than one provinces to create a new province subject to the will of majority of district/tehsil being affected and the provision of article 239 (4) regarding approval of respective provincial assembly.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2014.