MULTAN: Awami Raj Party chairman MNA Jamshed Dasti Tuesday said the leadership of Janoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz (JPSM) was opportunists and he had decided not to join the JPSM because they were not committed to creation of the province. In an exclusive interview with The News here, he said he had submitted creation of Seraiki province bill in the National Assembly in 2014 but the present JPSM lawmakers widely opposed it. “The JPSM leaders are playing game to protect their election politics,” he said.
Dasti said majority of the JPSM leaders were part of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s corruption and the National Accountability Bureau was going to institute corruption cases against them on receiving roads construction contracts worth hundreds of million rupees.
“I am not joining the opportunists because I am very much clear that they are not sincere with the cause. They are just manipulating politics in the name of new province. The JPSM leadership is giving an impression that establishment is backing the new province initiative, which is quite false. They are just marketing them in the name of new province, making a weight for better bargain with any political party in the forthcoming elections,” he claimed. To a query, he said the Awami Raj Party was going to launch formal drive for Seraiki province from Multan on May 11. He said the public meeting would be held at Qila Qasim Bagh, Multan.
Awami Muslim League president Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Pakistan Seraiki Party president Allah Nawaz Wains would also address the Multan public meeting, he added. He said the members of JPSM were licking the feet of Nawaz Sharif when he tabled the Seraiki province bill in the national assembly. “No one except Shah Mehmood Qureshi is sincere with creation of the Seraiki province,” he claimed. He said the PPP did not support the Seraiki province because it feared that a same demand might arise from Sindh. He said the word Seraiki was the identity of this region and it had nothing to do with lingual.
Dasti said the fifth province could be created through 24th amendment in the constitution. He said the ministers belonging to Seraiki region were ‘slaves’ of Takht-e-Lahore. He said the people of south Punjab had been deprived of their basic rights.
Responding to another query, he said he had left Pakistan People’s Party because its leadership considered him inferior. He vowed that he would wipe out the PPP from the Seraiki region.
The people of Saraiki region want a new province, not just an administrative unit. “We will not allow the Punjab Assembly to pass a resolution against the Seraiki province. Scores of south Punjab youth are jobless. The feudal lords of the area have joined hands with the Islamabad and Lahore governments, and they both are exploiting us,” he added.
Responding to Jamshed Dasti’s remarks, JPSM Additional secretary general MNA Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry rejected all allegations levelled by Dasti. He said Dasti should improve his manners and language. “Dasti is a mud-slinging. The JPSM is very committed to creation of a new province and Dasti needs to back this initiative rather campaigning against the demand of south Punjab province,” he said.
Chaudhry said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif did not give due respect to the south Punjab lawmakers but now he was meeting each member of the south Punjab because of the JPSM’s demand for new province. He said the government was giving a proposal of two provinces, including Bahawalpur and south Punjab provinces but its prime objective was to divide the people of this region.
