Seraiki Party leader Langah demands complete disassociation from Punjab. PHOTO: FILE
The question of new provinces received new jolts when a Seraiki leader demanded that Seraiki areas within and outside Punjab should be consolidated as a separate province — giving a purely ‘ethnic’ tinge to the carving process.
Taj Muhammad Langah, chairman of the Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP), spoke to an in-camera session held by the parliamentary commission convened to administer the formation of new provinces, and said that his party wanted complete dissociation from Punjab.
“We want a new province comprising 21 districts on the basis of shared language, culture and history,” he demanded.
Langah also objected to the name ‘Janoobi (South) Punjab’ proposed by the commission, insisting that ‘Punjab’ should not overlap with ‘Seraiki’. “The proposed name of ‘Janoobi Punjab’ is out of question,” asserted Langah. “We will not accept any name other than ‘Seraiki province’,” he added.
The demand of consolidating Seraiki speaking regions of Pakistan into one province meant that Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) will have to be fused with the south Punjab regions. However, such changes in the map fall far out of the parliamentary commission’s league, which was constituted to administer provincial division within Punjab’s boundaries.
Earlier in July, President Asif Ali Zardari asked the commission to oversee a new South Punjab province and to revive Bahawalpur’s status as a separate province. The commission is headed by Senator Farhatullah Babar.
Langah, however, objected to Bahawalpur’s status as a separate province saying that, “Bahawalpur was part of Multan province till 1870,” urging that the district should be included in the Seraiki province.
In the last meeting of the commission, experts had voted for a single Seraiki province comprising South Punjab region and Bahawalpur.
‘Agitation’
The PSP chairman, who has been struggling for Seraiki self-determination for decades, warned of “agitation”, if his demands were not met.
Langah said that he would press for his demands in the K-P assembly as well.
Furthermore, he quoted statements by leaders who had sanctioned the creation of a Seraiki province. These included former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, ANP Chief Asfandyar Wali, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
After the meeting, Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission Senator Farhatullah Babar said that experts and stakeholders had given their input and recommendations will be finalised as early as possible. However, no time-frame was intimated.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2012.
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