A delegation comprising parliamentarians and notables from Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Friday.
The delegation included MNA Makhdoom Shahabuddin, provincial legislators Muhammad Tariq Amin Hotyana, Mian Muhammad Ali Laleka, Sardar Muhammad Afzal Tatlah and Chaudhry Shaukat Mahmood Basra.
Haider Zaman Qureshi, Rao Ijaz Ali Khan, Iftikhar Ali Chishti Jatla and Amjad Majeed Qureshi were also present during the meeting. The delegation thanked the president for his interest in the issues of southern Punjab and removing grievances and sense of deprivation of the people of the area.
The president reiterated that the Pakistan Peoples Party had promised a separate province for the people of south Punjab in view of their aspirations and their legitimate demands. He said that the party will continue making all efforts to fulfil its promise during its tenure.
He called upon the parliamentarians and notables to go to the masses and put the issue of South Punjab in the correct perspective that the creation of a separate province was not aimed against anyone but a part of nation building process of PPP.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2012.
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Please note that Saraikistan province does not mean to divide Punjab, rather it is the restoration of the region as a capital that has been in the history as a separate province or even the state. The name Saraiki and Saraikistan are evolved from the name Sauvira which was an independent state in old India.
The people of Bahawalpur will protest and will Struck out so called representatives of Bahawalpur if anyone will try to align us with fake Seraikistan. Balochs, Gailanis and Khans are trying to divide the Punjabi tribes and we are not fools. Mr Durrani is settler along with others and they cannot fool us to bring hatred among real Punjabis for our land. We have synonymous history with rest of Punjab and we are same like people of Upper Punjab. When i visit i consider Lahore as my capital, my cultural capital as my city and we inter marry from North Punjab and love Upper Punjab.We will l never get artificial Seraiki identity. Either Bahawalpur or else Punjab but no Seraikistan and we dont want to make boundaries of hatred like some people want.
How can a "symbol of the federation " actively be engineering the divide of a federating provinve .
Shame on this type of dirty politics !!'