Zardari builds consensus for one South Punjab province
The ruling party will press for formation of one province in southern Punjab only, with its headquarters at Bahawalpur, as opposed to opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s proposal of two separate provinces.
To this end, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari has taken his party’s lawmakers, particularly those hailing from South Punjab including former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani, into confidence, sources have told The Express Tribune.
According to sources, President Zardari has convinced Gilani that the provincial headquarters of the proposed South Punjab province will be established at Bahawalpur division, while an industrial zone will be established in Multan.
Gilani has also been in favour of one South Punjab province, and has been opposed to restoration of Bahawalpur to its provincial status.
One province
Sources said President Zardari, a few days ago, invited the leader of the movement for restoration of Bahawalpur province, Nawab Salahuddin Khan Abbasi, to the Presidency and convinced him to step back from his stance in exchange for a lucrative package, including the governorship of the South Punjab province.
Sources added that President Zardari also called a meeting of party workers from Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar on August 3 at the Presidency, and took them into confidence over the creation of one province.
One of the participants of the meeting, PPP’s provincial lawmaker Chaudhry Shaukat Mehmood Basra, confirmed that the party’s proposal is for creation of one South Punjab province, with its headquarters at Bahawalpur.
Basra said President Zardari has urged them to expedite their efforts in forcing the Punjab government to nominate two MPAs for the formation of a commission on the new province.
Despite being officially asked by the Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza around 10 days ago, the Punjab government has yet to nominate two MPAs from the Punjab Assembly to the commission.
Basra said the opposition benches will force the Punjab Assembly Speaker to nominate the two MPAs when the assembly is called into session after Eid.
President Zardari had sent a reference to Speaker NA on May 31, for constitution of a commission for creation of two provinces in southern Punjab. The commission will comprise six MNAs, six Senators and two MPAs from PA.
Asked how the commission members would develop a consensus over formation of only one South Punjab province when the commission’s mandate calls for two, Basra said the president told them that the commission members would be asked to form one province only.
Meanwhile, PML-N’s MNA from Bahawalpur Mian Saud Majeed said it was impossible for the PPP to abandon the restoration of Bahawalpur as a separate province. He said PML-N will not budge from their demand for two provinces in southern Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2012.
COMMENTS (29)
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How about a province each for each Division. 8 for Punjab and 27 in total, all on administrative grounds and not ethnic. Countries that are developed generally have decision making and power delegated to a smaller level.
@Qaiserani
Lahore is the seat of great and historic Punjabi soil and it shall remain so till the judgement day. "Takht e Lahore" is our identity.
I am not afraid to own my Punjabi identity, in fact having a village in Southern Punjab only reaffirms my point more so that we're the only locals of this land. If you own this land as well then you should call yourself a Punjabi too instead of calling original locals of this land 'settlers'.
Even if Punjab is divided, we shall still call ourselves Punjabi and wont give up on our lands because we have owned them even before Pakistan came into being. Please own your Punjab too like the rest of us.
@Zubair.Try hard brother,South Punjab has to be separated.You can't stop it now.try to be patriot towards your "soil" to whom you claim to be "son",not of the usurpers from"takt e Lahore".
How can they back out?
PPP along with PMLN passed a unanimous resolution for Bahawalpur and Janobi PUNJAB.
Nothing can be done agianst the wishes of PUNjAB ASSEMBLEY. PERIOD.
Those who do not stop talking about the self rule in Kashmir should respect the will of the people of S. Punjab. No matter who says what, let the people of S. Punjab decide the issue. By giving more rights to local people to govern their own affairs is a good thing not bad. How could empowering Multan and S. Punjab be bad for the country and break it? The country breaks when the rights are usurped not when there is freedom. We have not learned from abject surrender of E. Pakistan.
@Zubair: I was missing you bro.Thank God you are back.
@Qaiserani
Settlers you say ? You should know who are the real settlers in our Seraiki belt. Only Rajputs and Jatts are the real locals of the land. we OWN our land.
@Shahzad Jutt: Awans, Maliks, Khokhars, Arains, Butts, Mirs, Khars, Kharals, Cheemas, Mirs, Mughals, Chaudries etc are with you Brother. I hope Niazis, Gailanis, Baloch tribes, Durranis and Khans will stop this ethnic division on the basis of race and language in Punjab. It is not the accent that makes you different but is it is the culture and history that makes you distinct and apart from some people all people have one history and one culture. Loving accents cannot divide the people at all as otherwise UK will be divided into 16 or pieces based on diverse English Accents.
I with my Jatt, Arain, Gujjar, Rajput and all other Punjabi brethren fight against this step, we will not let Zardari divide Punjab
@Raheem Bukhsh: Let us have our own Saraikistan.No problem how feudals plunder us.We are fed up by "takh e Lahore" plundering us.As far as feudals are concerned,personalities donot matter,it's state structure that matters and unfortunately that is Punjabi based.We want our own civil,military and judicial bureaucracy.We want our own province.We donot want Shehbaz Shareef as "Mohammad bin Qasim" to liberate us from Jaws of "feudals".Enough is enough.He is feudal in himself who cares for GT Road cities only. @Mohammad.Hats off to you man for your brave comments.lets make federation more equitable for all ethnicities by giving them their due rights.
Mr President, Please stop dividing Pakistan. Don't break Pakistan into pieces just for a couple thousand racist-based votes. You know you will lose next election due the gross incompetence and the zero work you did but don't use Pakistan itself as a price to win your next election
I personally think that it is good for Pakistan to have at least 10 provinces, but it should not be on hatred and political grounds, south Punjab should be remain one province rather than two. I appreciate Zardari's efforts to do so. Here i also wanna say that Zardari is dividing Punjab to gain political mileage but he don't know that after doing this nobody can stop division of urban Sindh and rural Sindh. GOD bless and protect this country.
@Mohammad Paid Comments surely. Who stopped other provinces to build factories, schools and infrastructure? You will always spread hate in minds, teach this hate to ur young ones so they wont study but act as puppets of ur agenda in schools and colleges. You ll ruin their career and lives through anti punjab student politics and so for the rest of life they ll blame Punjab for every misery of life. This is Story of Interior Sindh and Balochistan.
@Qaisrani The only areas of Pakistan which are poor and people living a miserable life are those where PPP has majority. You will get the answer. Interior sindh is most under developed area of Pakistan they dont have any takht e lahore. In Punjab every race and ethnicity is treated equally unlike all other provinces of Pakistan. South Punjab historically has produced more rulers then central or northern punjab but still ur not deleloped? The reason is dirty politics of ur Feudals. Throw them out or even autonomy cant bring any good to u.
@DevilHunterX: If the Sindh assembly agrees why not.
@Muhammad: English, do you speak it?
Seraikis, Sindhis, Pakhtoon And Baloch are united this time. Punjab will be divided and Punjabi dominance will be ended. Punjabis have eaten everyone else and now is the time to restrict them around Lahore.
@Salman....where is army?? On three year extension!!
dammed be Punjab, it ate up all gas from Sui in Baluchistan, created factories in punjab when it had no energy resources. It ate up East Pakistan.
So yes where is the army, the punjabi army.
If the pubjabis push it the rest of the people of pakistan will make this country into Libya.
Takht-e- Lahore Zindabad.
Dear beloved Mr President,we appreciate your sincere intentions towards welfare of Saraikis.If people from bahawalpur diivision,under inifluence from PMLN and settlers propaganda 'donot want to be part of Saraikistan with historical Multan as capital,Then give them their own province.We are fed up with'takh e lahore".Liberate us from their cluthces.We want to be treated as equal citizens of Pakistan with same rights as people from GT Road cities.
Nawab Sahib Governor how come.what is his mandate he can't even win his seat.. and this man Haven't come to Bahawalpur from ages ever since this movement started he is there to take top spot...
Once again PPP is ready to break up Pakistan. Where is the army?
How about a consensus for South Sindh as well?
What a diabolical scheme! Take the only stable and prosperous province in Pakistan and break it up so that South Punjab can become like Sind or Baluchistan. There is stability and development going on in Punjab so all I see is a political ply to undermine the progress of that province. There is no feudalism in central and northern Punjab and the only vestige of feudalism in that province exists in South Punjab so we can see that the real agenda is to keep South Punjab backward and not let it grow along with the rest of Punjab.
Just Political scoring all parties ready to make peaces of Pakistan. if you people not able to run this country then rent it out for some neighboring country, A country where there is no light and education and you visionary lake leaders trying to using political cards against the people of Pakistan.