Mammoth address: ‘Bahawalpur will not be part of Seraiki province’

Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi said that restoring the province was tantamount to safeguarding the rights of the poor.

BAHALWALPUR:

Launching his public contact campaign for the restoration of Bahawalpur province, Chief of Bahawalpur National Awami Party (BNAP) Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi said on Sunday that restoring the province was tantamount to safeguarding the rights of the poor.

“The people of Bahawalpur had not allowed the Sikh army to cross River Sutlej and they will not let opponents of the restoration of the Bahawalpur province cross the river either,” he said, while addressing a gathering of 80,000 men and women at Basti Nihal Abbasi located on the border between Sindh and Bahawalpur.

The public meeting was held as part of a public contact campaign to garner support for the cause of restoration of the Bahawalpur province, following the unveiling of the Bahawalpur Declaration on April 14.

“We have no objection to the creation of a new province but we will not let anyone at any cost to include Bahawalpur in the Seraiki province,” Abbasi said.

He said that Bahawalpur was a separate province in the past and its same status would have to be restored. “No matter which language the people of my state speak, I cannot tolerate deprivation of their rights,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2011.