A game plan needs to be drafted for the socio-economic growth of a new province.
LAHORE: It is perfectly understandable that the creation of new provinces will be, in many ways, a positive step. This will lead to the development of the backward areas of Punjab; Multan and Bahawalpur will become important cities politically and economically, Lahore will be relieved of the huge rural to urban migration and population constraints will be shared with these cities. Legal issues will be solved in Multan too and hence people living in southern Punjab will not need to travel to Lahore.
However, there is one thing that bothers me. How will the new province earn money? Most of the income generated by Punjab comes from the industrial cities of Lahore and Faisalabad. With these forming a new province, they will develop further. However, southern Punjab will become poor almost instantly. There will be little income generation which, in this areas, comes mostly from cotton production. This issue needs to be resolved in order to avoid an economic downturn in southern Punjab. A commission needs to be set up and a game plan needs to be drafted for the socio-economic growth of a new province, if and when it materialises.
Farid Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2011.
