Opposition parties resume Hazara province movement, worrying ruling PTI

KARACHI: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf that has already been under severe pressure for not materialising its promise to carve out the South Punjab province now has to face another challenge. Key leaders of the opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl, in a public gathering on Sunday night in Karachi announced to resume the campaign for a separate Hazara province.

Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, a former federal minister and a PML-N central leader, Senator Talha Mehmood, a JUI-F central leader, and Murtaza Javed Abbasi, former deputy speaker National Assembly, spoke to a public gathering in Karachi’s Rasheedabad, where they announced to start the campaign for the Hazara province again from April 12 – the tenth anniversary of the Abbottabad incident, where seven people were killed during the protest against renaming the erstwhile North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the passage of the 18th Amendment in 2010.

A number of current and former lawmakers from KP’s Hazara Division, including Dr. Sajjad Awan, Mian Zia Ur Rehman, Nawabzada Farid Salahuddin, former federal minister Syed Qasim Shah, leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Suba Hazara Tehreek and other political parties also attended the gathering organised by the Karachi-based organization working for the formation of the new province.

Former federal minister Yousaf said that the PML-N has already announced to support the government in passing the bill tabled in the parliament. “But the PTI-led government is not serious about delivering its promise of a separate province it made with Hazara’s voters,” said Yousaf, who is now the PML-N’s parliamentary leader in the KP Assembly.

“The government and opposition both had tabled a bill for the Hazara province in National Assembly and Senate and now the Centre had to show that it was serious about delivering the PTI’s promise of a separate province during the 2018’s general elections,” he said.

JUI-F’s Mehmood also asked the ruling PTI to ensure that the legislation was passed in the National Assembly (NA) and Senate. “If the government can carve our new districts and tehsils, why did it not carve out a new province,” he asked. He said that the Hazara province movement was a sacred cause and the demand was constitutionally valid.

Former deputy speaker Abbasi said that residents demand the restoration of Hazara’s status as a province purely on administrative grounds. “It takes an entire day if someone is travelling from Kohistan to Peshawar,” he said.

In the gathering, a committee to negotiate with political parties and mobilise people for the new province was also formed. Analysts believe that the demand for the Hazara province has been considered an emotional issue to lure voters in KP’s Hazara Division for the upcoming local government polls but also discredit the ruling PTI for not passing the bill already tabled in the parliament.