Protesters say
recommendations by ‘puppet
commission’
not acceptable. PHOTE: FILE
BAHALWALPUR: Muttahida Mahaz Bahawalpur (MMB) on Sunday announced to launch a protest against the recommendations of the parliamentary commission on new provinces.
Speaking at a press conference, the MMB leaders, including Muhammad Ali Durrani, rejected the recommendation to create a Bahawalpur-South Punjab province calling the commission a “puppet commission”.
They were later joined by local political leaders, lawyers, traders, civil society members and journalists, in a sit-in on the Welcome Chowk.
Durrani said, “The commission’s plan goes against the Constitution. It is a joke with the people of Bahawalpur and south Punjab and goes beyond the mandate of the parliamentary commission.”
He said the commission had allowed itself to be turned into a puppet “manipulated by Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood”.
He said the Bahawalpur-South Punjab province plan ignored the wishes and demands of the people of Bahawalpur.
He said going by the recommendation of the commission, it will be a 750- kilometre long province, whose capital will be at a distance of 500km from Mianwali. This, he said, was something the people did not want.
“This is another example of exploitation of the people of an area by its ruling elite, feudals and the landlords, who want to pillage the resources of Bahawalpur and capture the 6.4 million acre land of Cholistan.”
Durrani said the people of Bahawalpur will not abandon their 42-year struggle for their constitutional, historical and right to a province.
He said that those who preached that the people should be the source of political power had betrayed the people.
Some 100 women also participated in the sit-in.
Bahawalpur High Court Bar Association President Yahya Khan said that the bar members apposed the recommendations of the commission. He said the lawyers’ community was ready to join its protest.
Hafiz Younis, president of the Traders’ Association, also endorsed the demand. He said the traders were ready for a shutter-down strike in support of the demand for a Bahawalpur province.
Malik Habibullah Bhutta, Makhdoom Nasir Bokhari, Muhammad Nawaz Gardezi, Fakhar Zaman Azhar, Mujtaba Bokhari, Qari Moonis Baloch, Shahid Hameed Rehmani, Haji Baleeghur Rehman,, Humayun Gulzar, Akram Ansari, Zubair Naich, Jahanzaib Gillani, Bishop Esa Naeem, Jan Muhammad Chohan, Jam Muhammad Ali Laar, Ghazala Rehmani and Khalida Farooq also addressed the sit-in.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2013.
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If Government has made the decision to form new province then they should form two provinces 1) South Punjab and 2) Bahawalpur; otherwise hatred will increase within neighbors and ethnicity issues may become severe like that of in Karachi.