Time-frame demanded for establishment of Saraiki province

MULTAN: Saraikistan Suba Mahaz chairman Zahoor Ahmed Dhreeja Friday said the government should announce a time frame of the formation of Saraiki province.

Talking to reporters, Dhreeja said it had been a demand of Saraiki nationalists to have a separate province of having districts of Saraiki region. He said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Multan had promised of making the province, but nobody had given a time frame in this regard.

He said the promise of 100 days had already elapsed. Dhreeja said the civil Secretariat has also proved to be a sham and lollipop. He said the Foreign Minister had been talking about the arrival of the Prime Minister with the Multan package for two years. He said it was a sheer breach of trust with the people of the Saraiki region.

Saraiki Suba Mahaz office-bearers including Colonel Abdul Jabbar Abbassi, Khawaja Ghulam Farid Koreja, Ashiq Buzdar and others said the government did not seem serious in the creation of the province.

They said it was the sole right of the people to decide establishing the secretariat as the government had divided the whole region into Multan and Bahawalpur. They accused the government of conspiring against people of the region by entangling them into an unwanted situation.

They blamed the rulers of trying to create a continuous divide between Multan and Bahawalpur by using colonial tactics. They said the government should set up a parliamentary provincial commission. There is an accepted principle all over the world that the first provincial commission is formed and it is the job of the provincial commission to decide the name of the province, its boundaries and other matters. Makes recommendations and seeks approval from the Assembly, they maintained.

They said there was an example of this in neighboring India. At the time of partition, India had nine provinces, now it is thirty-six. If the rulers do not have their own intellect, then at least learn something from others. Saraiki nationalists said the Senate has passed the Saraiki Province Bill with a two-thirds majority, now the same bill was in the National Assembly. They demanded the government to bring the bill to the table and approve the same.

The Saraiki nationalists said the people in the whole region do not ask for charity but they bare demanding their rights. They do not want south Punjab but they are only struggling for creation of Saraiki province with full boundaries and identity.