Agitation against delay in Seraiki province announced

MULTAN: All professional bodies of teachers’ unions, public servants and civil society have jointly announced launching of an aggressive agitation against continuous delay in creation of Saraiki province after Eid.

Protest demonstrations and hunger strike camps would be established in all districts of south Punjab in the first phase of the agitation.

Talking to The News, Grand Alliance senior vice chairman Rana Altaf Hussein said: "Enough is enough as the government is continuously playing with people of Saraiki region and politicising the demand, we cannot demonstrate more patience. The government has betrayed from all commitments and pre-election promises."

He said more than a dozens of professional organizations, including the Punjab Teachers Union, All Pakistan Clerks Association, District Headmasters Association, Senior Staff Association, Elementary Headmasters Association, Wasa Employees Association, agriculture department, irrigation and civil society organisations have established a grand alliance for launching struggle for the creation of Saraiki province because the government was continuously taking the matter non seroulsy and delaying the establishment of province. He said the grand alliance has held its extensive meeting of all the stakeholders, which has finally decided launching an aggressive agitation on the delay of Saraiki province.

Rana Altaf questioned where are Rs 3 billion allocated in Punjab budget 2019-20 for setting up south administrative secretariat as the budget announcement for 2020-21 is due in June next.

He said the PTI-led government had promised creation of province in the first 100 days o f taking over public offices. The deadline had been ended in November last but the government was not looking serious to establish even a secretariat, he maintained. He said another so-called claimant of the separate province was Janoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz and their members had contested under an oath that they would create province in the first 100 days after taking over public offices. The members of JPSM have also betrayed from their commitments, he said. To a query, he said the country would grow faster after the creation of province with the efficient distribution of revenue among all the stakeholders. While advocating in favour of new province he said that it would help running local government affairs by paying an ample attention to the local glitches.

The Saraiki province would lead to more diverse set of policies and more opportunities for investors. This will encourage to industrial growth and ultimately brings more benefits for the people. The smaller province will undeniably reflect the identity of the people better as larger provinces tend to have a more heterogeneous nature and its policies could be dominated by the most vocal communities or those societies that grab power, he said.

Rana Altaf said the new province would help setting up new health projects and most modern set up of health care. The police system will become more efficient as they will have less population under them to control besides indirect and direct tax collection will become efficient as the government would able to keep track of accomplishments.