LAHORE: The National Assembly recently passed a resolution that supported the call for the creation of a new province in southern Punjab. According to the resolution, the new province’s creation would secure the political, economic and administrative interests of the people of the area.
The stated motives of the resolution are praiseworthy, but I cannot understand why the government thinks only about the plight of the people of southern Punjab and not for the deprived people of other regions.
The government should not use the demand for new provinces as an excuse for political point scoring. If it is really sincere about rectifying the grievances of the people of the country, then it should institute a commission consisting of geologists, anthropologists, linguistic experts, unbiased political activists and historians to study the feasibility of creating new provinces. The recommendations of the said commission should be discussed in the National Assembly, Senate and the provincial assemblies in order to generate a consensus on them.
There is no doubt that we need to improve our administrative structure on an urgent basis. That is why our political parties should show some maturity and take this issue seriously, instead of using it as a political bargaining chip.
Muhammad Nadeem
Published in The Express Tribune, May 5th, 2012.
