As far as the issue of the creation of new provinces is concerned, it is not as ‘mala fide’ an intention.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Tanvir Ahmad Khan’s article of August 22 titled “A diversion to nowhere”. The writer obviously has a preference for a strong centre and has perhaps forgotten that law and order is the primary responsibility of the provinces. As far as the issue of the creation of new provinces is concerned, it is not as ‘mala fide’ an intention as the writer makes it to be.
The reason why I say this is that if the people of a particular region of a province want to have their own province, then surely a democracy should honour that or, at least, have a mechanism where the magnitude of that opinion is tested and if it is significant it should be allowed to convert itself into a tangibly altered reality. For example, people in south Punjab who speak Seraiki or those in the Hazara area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa want to have their own separate province and to dismiss their aspirations is not going to be very productive.
MY Qaisrani
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2011.
