South Punjab?

Despite having made repeated slogans/promises Imran Khan and the PTI's leadership seems to have forgotten that the creation of a 'South Punjab' province remains a forgotten goal. This is of course nothing new for the people of southern Punjab. Previous governments have done the same; raised the issue of the new province to curry favour with the Seraiki-speaking voters and entice local leaders, and once the new government is formed, the issue is dropped.

Almost two years into the PTI tenure, the present regime is also treading on the the path exactly as it has before. This is after the PTI assured that this time it would be different. For a while, it seemed so. The party had absorbed a lot of PML-N dissidents from southern Punjab and it had appointed a chief Mmnister in Usman Buzdar who hailed from Dera Ghazi Khan, the southern tip of Punjab. Jehangir Tareen and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, two major players in the PTI also hail from Lodhran and Multan respectively. If there ever was time and political capital to form the 'Seraiki' province, now was it. Yet this government’s past conduct does not indicate that it is ready to make a serious push to form a new province.The discussions over the 'establishment of southern Punjab secretariat' remained surface level and non-committal in meetings at the government level. It was an underwhelming moment; the public expected a more fleshed-out plan to come out from this meeting of political heavyweights.

Jamshed Siddiqui

Lahore