ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, when addressing the National Assembly on Tuesday, said that he is in complete support of the formation of the Seraiki province.
Gilani refuted popular claims that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was restricted to Sindhis and family members only. He said that he was a Seraiki himself and the elected prime minister by the PPP, which is the biggest example of the respect the party gives to Seraikis.
Gilani further added that now was the perfect time to give identity to the Seraikis as they are demanding. Nothing could be more ironic than a Seraiki prime minister ignoring the demand of the Seraikis for their own province, he said.
The Prime Minister further added that if provincial autonomy had been given to the provinces earlier, Pakistan wouldn’t have lost East Pakistan in 1971.
Gilani also said that the people of Pakistan should not worry about Pakistan becoming weak. Giving provincial identity to Seraikis will not weaken Pakistan, in fact it will strengthen it, and the PPP had no hidden motive behind the approval of this appeal, he said.
Yousaf Raza Gilani also indirectly referenced Nawaz Sharif’s statement from yesterday’s gathering in Karachi, where the PML-N chief said that seeking the army’s assistance under a democratic supervision was completely justified if its purpose was to protect the citizens and bring peace in the city. Gilani responded by saying that this practice counts as mixing democracy with dictatorship, which was unacceptable in a democratic setup.
The PM also said that army should be kept in the background and if put into practice all the time, its power is eroded.
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Gilani sb!
Aren't the existing problems enough for the common citizens?
Please try to SOLVE & not increase the PROBLEMS.
No 'mai ka lal' can divide Punjab. It has been here since 5000 years. We have already divided once for Pakistan. Gillani's are themselves Iranian wanderers who settled in Punjab, they should not back-stab the motherland.
We will never allow our sohna Punjab to be partitioned again. Dream on Gilani.
Televised party leaders debate for the next election !
I welcome the decision for a new province. We want to get rid of Takht-e-Lahore peacefully before our next geberation decides to take up arms like Baloch.
PPP seems to stand for Pakistan Partition Party. What has Pakistan learnyt after losing Bangladesh. It is time to stop shameless divisive policies of opportunist politicians. Let everybody be a PAKISTANI and be proud of it and nothing else. India has gone to dogs with all kinds of divisions. Please do not do that.
What is IKs stand on this? Spinless? So much so that he can't utter a word on this... Have Jehangir Tareen and SMQ (who was using Seraki as if it is race thoughout his speech in Karachi) bought IK?!?
@ adnan
You may be right. but must see the in right perspective. i wish a seriaki province be made soon. but will multan build same hospitals , roads, fly overs in layyah, muzzafgarh. your argument lacks reason. big cities will always get significantly more funds compared to smaller.
The amount of money spent in karachi cannot be spent on larkana. the amount of money spent on peshawar will not be spent on laki marwat, swat. the demand for province is right but justification presented is not.
what do think of bawalpur will they become slave of takhte multan.
i can tell you this wont stop.
Rather than more provinces a better option would more devolution of power and finances to local governments. It is so odd that nobody is talking about local governments anymore. A good Local government system is solution to lot of issues, which enable each district to provide facilities to its population.
goverment has failed at all fronts now come with new issue!!!!!!! Plebiscite or election should be conducted for such issues
Let's the fun begin. If prime minister is really interested in carving out a new province in South Punjab, he shouldn't be surprised if demands start coming up from every corner of Pakistan. The problem with not standardizing languages and not giving them official status is that every language has many dialects. Punjabi doesn't only have a saraiki dialect only; there is Jhangvi (around Jhang, central Punjab); there is a dialect around Mianwali region; there is a dialect around Rawalpindi region; in fact every other village and town in Punjab speaks Punjabi with slightly different dialect. It is absolutely mind-boggling to imagine that all these dialects are a different language; they all have same vocabulary and are all same. It's not just Punjab; there will be Hazara in KP, and even Swat, Kohat, Dera Ismail khan, all having different dialects. Can Pakistan afford all these provinces.
Just to get some votes, this current PPP government wants division at such level.
Yes. Creation of new provinces will solve our some major problems. Each and every company, institution will make their provincial offices. Employment opportunities would be created. Resources division will become efficient. I ask u when Allama Iqbal road in lahore will complete? When Multan road in Lahore will complete? When Muslim town flyover in Lahore will complete? When number of CNG buses in Lahore will complete? Do u know how much funds are apent only on ring road and riwind road? I ask u when any big project like Ring Road in Lahore will announced for South punjab? When any flyover like Kalma Chowk flyover will be announced for south punjab? When any new hospital will be announced in south punjab? When any new University will be announced for south punjab? When road construction will start in Mianwali?
All hospitals/Universities are for Lahore and Upper Punjab. Sharif sahab has only Danish Schools and Mobile health units for us??????????
Good job MQM
This is one of the last card to be used by PPP . . .
Dividing PUNJAB WILL BE a big mistake. This will create imbalance in SENATE.
Suppose 3 provinces in punjab. this will give 75 Seats Hazara 25
If above hundred people will say build a particular dam how will that be stoped. Pakhtunkhawa 25 Balochistan 25 Sindh
One can judge that why authors of constitution have make it difficult to create new provinces.
making new provinces should be a serious exercise not the hollow slogans.
This move right now is not in favour of Sindh period
The PPP legislators from Sindh should give some wisdom to leadership.
wheres the resolution of Hazara province ? new provinces are in the favour of Pakistan
It would b a wise decision from PPP...& one more thing creation of Seraiki province isn't going to deny the fact that Seraikis are Pakistanis first...I m a Seraiki speaking but at the same time I m a proud Pakistani...Seraikis are demanding province & nothing else..
This is a wiser decision ' and it will help to improve the basic facilities needed in the remote areas of the country. There is nothing as yet to be worried ,about the bad effects of the division. Well done PM.
i don't understand why division of punjab is good and division of sindh is not good ? KIA YE KHULA TAZAD NAHI ?
if there will be a saraiki province then there has also to be a muhajir province for the millions of urdu,memoni and gujrati speaking people living in sindh.
Balkanization of Pakistan has already started. Next phase is the break-up for personal gains. Someone ask these politicians what have they done for the current provinces before coming up with further divide and rule policy.
There should be more and more provinces, till the point where provinces become irrelevant.
I am from Multan and hate the idea of creating a new province for Sirakies; this is just not acceptable to create the province on the basis of language only. It doesn't seems to me a strategic move which should be the actual base for creating new provinces and not the language. The statement from our Prime Minister is purely create from divide that a province for Sirakies. Yes, south Punjab needs to be separated from Punjab and must be a province but not on language grounds but to develop that region only.
@Ahmad: the only problem this aims to solve is that of votes, counteracting other 'emerging' parties and rescuing the eternally threatened democracy of the party in power.
people? meh, who really cares!
There is no such thing as a "Seraiki" language, culture or ethnicity. The exploitation by Lahore is real but the Seraiki identity is not. You're openining a can of worms and nothing good will come out of any of this.
if gilani is breaking up punjab on linguistic basis,then sindh will also be divided up between the sindhis and the mohajir communities.what is good for punjab is good for sindh as well.
so sindhi, baluch, pathan, punjabi, bihari, mahajar, memon etc were appearantly not enough. bravo mr. gilani create more divide
Wastage of time and resources on trivial issue. I fail to understand how the creation of new province(s) will solve problems for people residing in those areas.
What about CNG?