Seraiki nationalists reject dividing south Punjab into two provinces

MULTAN: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has tabled a bill in the National Assembly to divide the south Punjab region into two provinces but the Seraiki nationalists have rejected dividing south Punjab into Bahawalpur and south Punjab province in their separate meetings, The News has learnt.

Political workers and Seraiki nationalists have initiated an endless debate on the creation of one province and decided to hold conferences to strengthen consensus on the issue. The nationalist parties have said that creation of two provinces in the region is a conspiracy against the Upper House (Senate) to manipulate hegemony of Punjab.

The 11 nationalist parties’ alliance Seraikistan Sooba Mahaz has held three sessions of consultation, rejecting the creation of two provinces. They strongly criticised the PTI on gradually betraying from its pre-election commitments of creating a new south Punjab province in the first 100 days of taking over the public offices.

Seraiki Tehreek Rahbar’s Mansoor Siyial said that the nationalists and political workers had held six debate sessions in Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan to revisit the two provinces demand and developed a consensus that it would unbalance National Assembly as well as the Senate. “The Senate will have to lose its representative character after the division of south Punjab into two provinces.” He said that Bahawalpur had enjoyed the status of a State instead of a province.

Talking to this scribe, Pakistan Seraiki Party secretary-general Akbar Ansari contradicted that the Bahawalpur had remained a constitutional province of Pakistan. He said the Bahawalpur State merged with Pakistan on December 17, 1954, and the merger agreement clearly mentioned “merger of state of Bahawalpur with the federation of Pakistan”.

The One Unit inducted on October 14, 1955. The 1956 constitution of Pakistan clearly explained that ex-provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, NWFP and the state of Bahawalpur would be a part of West Pakistan.

Ansari said that Farhatullah Babar commission, which constituted in the PPP rule in 2008, sought a briefing from him and the Movement of Restoration of Bahawalpur province chairman M Ali Durrani. Durrani failed to successfully argue in favour of the restoration of Bahawalpur province before the commission. The commission compiled a report, saying Durrani’s arguments were not sufficient for the restoration of Bahawalpur province. The commission endorsed Ansari’s arguments against the restoration of Bahawalpur province.

Eleven Seraiki nationalist political parties have decided to gear up a united alliance, established a couple of weeks ago, ‘Seraikistan Sooba Mahaz’ (SSM) and adopted a radical stance on the issue.

Talking to journalists here on Friday, SSM co-chairperson Zahoor Dhareja said a consultative meeting of the alliance had outrightly rejected two provinces bill tabled by the Pakistan Muslim League-N in the National Assembly.

He said the consultative meeting had demanded the government to create the Seraikistan province comprising 24 districts. He warned the PTI that there is no room for betrayal or taking a U-turn on this issue.

The alliance has demanded inclusion of Faisalabad division in the proposed Seraiki province. It has rejected the division of Seraiki region into two provinces of Bahawalpur and south Punjab, saying the PTI is delaying the creation of Seraiki province under its political stakes. The united alliance has announced resisting creation of province in the name of Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab on the administrative grounds.

The SSM has decided refreshing contacts with Sindhi and Baloch nationalists to get their support for the creation of an identity-based province and launching an aggressive campaign in the coming days. The SSM demanded the PTI and the PPP to stop using the term of south Punjab.

Dhareja said the alliance had taken a serious notice over PML-N bill of two provinces. He termed it a grave conspiracy against the Seraiki region. The SSM has planned to hold solidarity conference in Dera Ismail Khan, Bahawalpur, Mianwali, Jhang, Multan and other districts to mobilise the masses for the purpose. The SSM will hold district conventions after Ramazan and the first workers' convention is planned at Kot Mithan Sharif after Eid.