New provinces: ‘No one can change Article 239’

Khursheed Shah says Senate will never allow the division of provinces.

KARACHI: Federal Minister Khursheed Shah, while talking to the media on Sunday, stressed that the Article 239(4) of the Constitution which says that the provincial government’s consent is needed to make new provinces cannot be changed.

“If anyone wants to change the Article in the Constitution then a two-third majority is first needed in the National Assembly and then in the Senate,” Shah said, while adding that the Senate will never allow the division of provinces.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had recently introduced a bill in the National Assembly calling for the creation of new provinces in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and tabled a 20th amendment in the Constitution for the abrogation of the Article 239.

Sindh nationalists protested against the bill terming it a “conspiracy” of dividing Sindh and held protests on Saturday all across the province.