Creation of south Punjab province

ISLAMABAD: Knowing well that it doesn’t have a two-thirds majority in the National and Punjab assemblies, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has staged a political stunt by handing over a constitutional bill to Speaker Asad Qaiser to move in the National Assembly to carve out a south Punjab province out of the majority federating unit.

For more than three years, the ruling party failed to pay even lip-service to its pledge to establish the fifth province. Now, when it is fighting for survival in the wake of the submission of the no-confidence motion against the prime minister and is faced with the dilemma of a simple majority in the National Assembly, it has indulged in this diversion.

The proposed legislation will be lying unattended because it will not even be passed in the Lower House of Parliament because the PTI has no two-thirds majority in this chamber where it had been conveniently doing law-making, ignoring the opposition’s calls to take it on board.

The move is indeed an attempt to get votes from the Seraiki belt in the next elections. It is intended to tell the people of south Punjab that the PTI is serious but its arch-rivals, particularly the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), are opposed to the idea.

In the past, due to pressure from the PPP, the PMLN government too had got passed a non-binding resolution from the Punjab Assembly to set up a south Punjab province, which otherwise had no legal, constitutional or parliamentary value.

The PPP too had then joined hands with the PMLN. But no political party ever made any tangible effort that could be described as serious to create a fifth province. Generally, all the political parties resorted to such gimmicks when their governments had been experiencing their death throes.

But at such points in time, this kind of insincere initiative had always turned out to be inconsequential. Just to divert attention from this idea, some political parties had been raising the demand of carving out two provinces – Seraiki and Bahawalpur – out of Punjab instead of one new federating unit or the revival of the Bahawalpur state.

In the past too, some ruling parties had moved bills in the National Assembly to create a south Punjab province, but with the end of their governments, the proposed legislation had been consigned to the dustbin.

No different fate awaits the bill that the PTI will table. Unless there is a consensus across the political spectrum, it is unimaginable that such a constitutional amendment will sail through the parliament. However, it may be enacted if some political party gets a two-thirds majority not only in the two chambers of parliament but also in the Punjab Assembly.

Just to appease certain federal and provincial lawmakers belonging to the ruling party from this region, the PTI government in Punjab, on directions from Prime Minister Imran Khan, had set up the south Punjab secretariat in a haphazard fashion, which was never able to meet the desired objective.

It was so patchily established that one notification after another was issued without any serious thought because of the pressure of these legislators, but it never became fully functional. The PTI has always interpreted it as fulfillment of the promise made to the Seraiki people.

While delivering a copy of the bill to the speaker, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who hails from this area, said the creation of south Punjab province was in the PTI manifesto, and Imran Khan, in his recent public meeting at Mailsi, had announced bringing the constitutional amendment bill in the parliament. The bill has been vetted by the law ministry. The Constitution allows the establishment of new provinces, but lays down strict conditions in Article 239.

One of them is that a bill which would have the effect of altering the limits of a province must not be presented to the president for assent unless it has been passed by the assembly of that province [Punjab in this case] by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership.

It means that even after the passage of the bill in the parliament, the president can’t assent to it unless the Punjab Assembly will pass it with a two-thirds majority. Such a majority will obviously be needed in the Senate, National Assembly and Punjab Assembly.

Article 239 says a bill to amend the Constitution may originate in either House and, when it has been approved by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership, it will be transmitted to the other House.

If it is passed without amendment by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House to which it is transmitted, it will be presented to the president for assent.

If the bill is passed with amendment by the votes of no less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House to which it is transmitted, it must be reconsidered by the House in which it had originated.

If the bill as amended by the former House is passed by the latter by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership, it will [subject to its approval from the Punjab assembly with a two-thirds majority], be presented to the president for assent.