Creating a new province

PPP should wait till after elections and, if it forms another government, bring all parties on board for this issue.

The PPP government, in an ambitious move has, through the parliamentary commission on new provinces, proposed carving out a new province that will be called Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab. Apart from the unfortunate acronym this proposed province shares with the right wing, anti-Pakistan political party in India, it also fails to take into account the views of the main opposition parties, which would either prefer that Punjab be left alone or have two new provinces created in Bahawalpur and South Punjab. The PML-N has also reiterated its demand for the creation of a Hazara province.

The PPP has been hasty in calling for this new province without securing the assent of the opposition parties. The composition of the commission on new provinces was already shrouded in controversy since it is headed by the president’s spokesperson and the Punjab Assembly, which after all is made up of the representatives of the province that will be affected, was only allowed to nominate two of the commission’s 12 members. Both the Punjab Assembly and the PML-N, as a whole, have continually expressed their lack of confidence in the commission.

The timing of the move is also unwise. With elections due to be held in May, now may not be the time to create new administrative units. The opposition parties are sure to believe that the new provinces are being created only to help the electoral prospects of the PPP. Since the Constitution requires both houses of parliament and the province being affected to pass any bill creating new provinces by a two-thirds majority there is simply no way to create the province without the PML-N’s assent. The PPP has not even tried to secure that and so the commission’s proposals are likely dead on arrival. Now, the PPP should wait till after the elections and, if it forms another government, try and bring all parties on board before bringing this issue up again.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2013.