Sana derides Qureshi's South Punjab dialogue as 'political gimmick'

Accuses govt of floating the idea as 'sleight of hand' way to revive dwindling support

LAHORE:

PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah on Saturday derided Foreign Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s letters seeking support for the creation of South Punjab province as a mere “political gimmick” employed to paper over the government’s failures.

FM Qureshi had announced earlier in the day at a news conference that he has written to PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, seeking support for legislation pertaining to the creation of the province.

He asked Shehbaz and Bilawal to extend their support for the creation of a separate province as a two-third parliamentary majority was conditional to getting the required legislation passed.

Dismissing the proposal as “sleight-of-hand” means to woo voters, Sanaullah, in a statement wondered what had prompted the government’s sudden interest in the creation of a separate province after the passage of three years. He alleged that “ego and jealousy” have long kept Prime Minister Imran Khan to reach across the political aisle.

“From the issues pertaining to separate province, pandemic, Kashmir and to the national security and FATF, Imran Khan's ego has not allowed him to write a single letter to Shahbaz Sharif.”

He cast aspersions on the ruling party for bulldozing its ambitious bills arbitrarily through the National Assembly at the eleventh hour without taking the opposition on board. “But it has the time to write a letter on South Punjab. Who is it that the government is aiming to fool?” he wondered.

‘Old sherbet in new bottle’

The PML-N’s provincial president went on to lambast the PTI government for severely damaging Punjab’s development which, he said, was the result of province’s chief minister Shehbaz Sharif, “yet the incumbent government feels no qualms”.

“Provinces are not formed by election stunts and political gimmicks,” he said, recalling that the calls for a separate Seraiki province have been a well-known prerogative of his party.

“The position of PML-N is clear on South Punjab, Bahawalpur and a Hazara province is clear. There are bills already introduced in the Senate, National Assembly and Punjab Assembly.”

“Now that the incompetent government can see its own support dwindling, it has resorted to such virtue signalling,” he added.