Promise to turn South Punjab into province will be honoured: Qureshi

Says conversion will ensure fastest development; pledges utilise budgetary allocation

MULTAN:

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday that the government will honour its promise of granting South Punjab the status of a province.

"The demand to convert South Punjab into a province is beyond every discrimination," Qureshi said as he addressed a gathering at the South Punjab secretariat this afternoon.

"The PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] will materialise its promise made to the people of the region," he added.

According to the minister, formation of a separate province will be the beginning of the fastest development in the region.

"In order to turn the fate of the area around, it is imperative for all powers to be moved to the South Punjab secretariat.

"It is PTI's agenda to ensure equal progress in every city and town of South Punjab," Qureshi said, likening the allocation of 33 per cent of budget for the area with the first drop of rain.

He hoped that the separate budget will help the process compensate for the deprivations of the region's people.

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The minister stressed timely completion of development projects to ensure there effects trickle down to the people.

"In order to spend development funds on the projects, it's essential to begin planning for the same," he emphasised.

"Not a rupee meant for the development budget of the area will be allowed to go to waste," he remarked.

Earlier this year, while reacting to Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz's comments that South Punjab had been kept deprived, Qureshi asked, “Who governed Punjab for the last several decades?”

“It remains to be seen who deprived South Punjab. In whose era were the funds diverted elsewhere unfairly? In whose era was the slogan, 'We are prisoners of the throne in Lahore' popular?” the foreign minister had said.

Qureshi said that the PTI government had taken two major decisions regarding South Punjab in the last two-and-a-half years.

“Two administrative secretariats have been set up in Multan and Bahawalpur to devolve power to lower levels. Special funds have been allocated for South Punjab which will be spent on construction and its development,” he was reported as saying.