Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Both opposition and ruling parties in the National Assembly on Thursday expressed their resolve to support the creation of a South Punjab province. Some legislators also raised the issue of Bahawalpur and Hazara provinces.

As the session kicked off, Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif announced to support the creation of South Punjab province. However, he also demanded restoration of the provincial status of Bahawalpur. He demanded the government to take appropriate measure in this regard and assured it that the opposition would fully support it.

However, PTI’s Amir Dogar claimed that whenever the matter of South Punjab province arises, the PML-N resorts to political point scoring. In the past, when consensus was reached, the then CM Punjab Shehbaz Sharif had attached the South Punjab province demand with the restoration of Bahawalpur province. “Why was the issue not raised when the PML-N was in power for last 10 years in Punjab and also in the centre,” he asked.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also extended support to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for creation of South Punjab province. Addressing the National Assembly (NA), Bilawal said that PPP had tabled the resolution in the Senate for creation of South Punjab province and got passed the bill in the Punjab assembly. He also lauded the NA speaker for issuing production order for PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique.

Supporting the demand for restoration of Bahawalpur province, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema said the province existed till 1954 but was dissolved under the one unit scheme hatched by General Ayub Khan against the Bengali majority in East Pakistan. He also questioned why the PML-N had forgotten the creation of South Punjab province when they were in power both in centre and in Punjab. “We don’t have any objection to the creation of a South Punjab province, but the former state of Bahawalpur should not be included in it.”

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that PTI has clear stance over the creation of South Punjab province, Why could the PML-N not do it when they had 2/3rd majority both in Punjab and the centre? he asked. He said if all parties were agreed on the creation of a South Punjab province, then a committee should be formed to make a constitutional amendment for the purpose.

MMA leader Maulana Abdul Wasay said that every move to create new provinces should be taken with great care as it can lead to demands for creation of more provinces in other federating units as well. He said they have no objection over the creation of South Punjab province but asked what did the government plan to do with those demanding creation of two or three provinces in Balochistan and provincial status for Karachi and formerly FATA territory.

Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dareshk claimed that the PPP had done a lot of work for the creation of South Punjab province but the matter could not be finalized due to the lack of a 2/3rd majority. He said that the PML-N had never been sincere to the cause.

Speaking on the occasion Sardar Akhtar Mengal said initially Pakistan had five province: Bengal, Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, and Balochistan. But later on, the majority province got separated and no one was bothered to ask why it got separated, he lamented. Instead of increasing the number of provinces, the number got decreased due to wrong policies of those at the helm, he said, adding that there was no harm in creation of more provinces. On the contrary, more provinces would strengthen the federation, he said. He regretted that some portions of Balochistan were given to Iran, and Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur regions were given to Punjab province.

Opposition members including Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Khurshid Shah and others demanded the government to discuss the rising price inflation in the country. During last four months, the government has imposed Rs950 billion in new taxes and was now planning to introduce more such measures, they regretted. They said this was in contradiction to the promises made with the people during the election campaign. The PTI government has broken the back of common people since power, gas, POL and other necessities of life have become more expensive.

Shehbaz Sharif also raised concerns over increasing prices of gas, electricity and daily use items and said that the House should take up the matter on a priority basis.

During the session, the House passed a unanimous resolution for the constitution of the public accounts committee and the standing committee on law and justice. The motion was moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan.

Published in Daily Times, December 21^st 2018.