Nawab regretted that despite passing a resolution and setting up a commission, first the PPP and then the PML-N had backed out of their commitments. PHOTO: FILE
“We will not accept a Bahawalpur-South Punjab province at any cost. We will shed the last drop of our blood for the restoration of Bahawalpur province,” Bahawalpur Awami National Party (BANP) Chief Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi said on Friday.
He was addressing a gathering of some 8,000 people at the Fareed Gate Chowk.
He said the PML-N and the PPP were trying to mislead the people in Bahawalpur as well as in the southern Punjab.
“But this no a joke, nor are people’s lives a sitcom.”
Referring to the strength of the gathering, the nawab said that the “ocean of people from Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar” spoke volumes about what the people wanted.
In Bahawalpur state, he said, nobody ever went hungry.
Health and education facilities were exemplary, he added.
He said three nawabs had laid down their lives in the service of the people of Bahawalpur.
“Nawab Bahawal Khan Rabay was murdered in 1866, Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan in 1899 and Nawab Bahawal Khan was poisoned during Hajj in 1960.”
He said he, too, was willing to lay down his life for the cause. He said he feared no one, but Allah.
He regretted that despite passing a resolution and setting up a commission, first the PPP and then the PML-N had backed out of their commitments.
He said the PPP had betrayed late Benazir Bhutto by not keeping her promise made to the people of Bahawalpur.
BANP President Muhammad Farooq Azam, a former federal minister, said that some people had spread false rumours that that Nawab Abbasi had ‘sold out the movement’.
He said that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had spent Rs236 billion on Multan, but had not spent a single penny on Bahawalpur. He said his party and the people demanded that the Bahawalpur province be created before the elections.
BANP Central Information Secretary Muhammad Javed Khan Daulatzai, former nazim of Sadiqabad Mir Fazalur Rehman and Farmers’ Board Pakistan Central Deputy President Jam Hazoor Bakhsh Laar also addressed the gathering.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2013.
COMMENTS (11)
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1726722687-0/Express-Tribune-Web-(9)1726722687-0-270x192.webp "instability hurts progress cm punjab")
Arrains, jats, gujars, awans, etc u will find same tribes living in Bahawalpur only Pathans or Pashtuns and balochs are new to area anyways they have their land or provinces u can say ... They can go back to their provinces and work for its betterment rather asking punjabis to divide their land culture families for them.....
@Restoration: WELL SAID TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU
Saraiki is a dialect of Punjabi. Othr dialects include jangle,pothohari, pahari and so on. We r all brothers. The under developed districts should be developed and this can be done without dividing Punjab.
@Bahawalpur: Well said bro. We want only one province that is called "Saraikistan".
Bahawalpur province's creation on the administrative basis is the need of the hour. Bahawalpuri's are not at all asking for a new province, but are merely demanding its restoration. Old people from Bahawalpur are of the opinion that Bahawalpur province must be restored, because area of South Punjab flourished a lot when it was a province under the leadership of Syed. Moreover , Bahawalpur lacks a large no. of civil and educational amenities. Big colleges like PG College, Sadiq Egerton college and Girls college are meant to transformed into universities. These sort of problems may get solved with the creation of province either.
@Bahawalpur: Federal Government have no right to talk about Provinces as Pakistan is a federation where every federation have the right to decide on their own what they want. So unless Punjab government themselves dont allow that nobody can talk about it. I am telling you if it will happen then just see Nationalist Parties like ANP In KPK will emerge and will sweep the next elections against all parties and Pakistaniat in Punjabis will be replaced by Punjabiat and they would be valid to defend their interests because enough is enough as PMLN does not have any backbone to defend them. PMLN only wants votes and Nawaz Sharif only want to become Prime minister and he have nothing to do with the land where he is living.
Only 8 thousand people oppose the creation of the new province as planned by PPPP. This surely means the majority is with the federal government.
The problem is lack of governance. How many provinces will you break?
@Blithe: Why would anyone want to break up the Punjab when it is the only stable, prospering and developing province in the country? It makes no sense at all since the region has a commonality and works well as a unit. Everyone just sees this as a political ploy by the PPP to win votes and weaken the Punjab. @Imran; If we wanted to bring in an old Mughal family we'ld have to import one from Central Asia which is the original home of the Mughals. The ones who claim to be the same from India are just phonies. Even the families in Lahore that have Mughal blood look more like proper Mughals. The ones in India don't look like Mughals at all if you compare them with pictures from that period.
No division of Punksb , full stop.
And if PML N doesn't have the backbone to defend Punjab's integrity , they will be totally discarded in the dustbin by the Punjabis .
ohh well we got one nawab asking to break a province.. why dont we just bring in old mughal family from india and give them whole of pakistan and tell them that this much is of ur country left and run it thn how nawab saab can claim bahawalpur