Daily Times

In March 2018 several parliamentarians from the south Punjab announced the formation of a Janoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz to strive for a new province comprising the Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions of the Punjab. Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiar and Tahir Bashir Cheema were elected president and general secretary of the Mahaz, respectively. A secretariat was set up in a rented building in Lahore.

Seraiki activists, who had demanding political rights since 1960s, had a glimpse of the rainbow, albeit a faded one. The Mahaz chairman, Sardar Balakh Sher Mazari, a former caretaker prime jminister, presented Imran Khan with a Seraiki ‘ajrak’. In return the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf promised to create a new province within 100 days after the election provided the party was voted into power. The whole lot of Mahaz boarded the PTI bandwagon. Most of the Mahaz leaders were elected from their constituencies. However, the new province did not materialize in the first 100 days of the government.

On January 28, 2019, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz presented a bill in the National Assembly demanding an amendment to Article 1 of the Constitution of Pakistan to create two new provinces – Bahawalpur and South Punjab. In 2013, the PML-N had refused to support the Pakistan Peoples Party’s move to create a Seraiki province. The PPP had tabled an amendment bill in the Senate of Pakistan to create a new province of South Punjab, a bill similar to the one passed by the National Assembly in 2013.

The clamour for Bahawalpur province was heard in the upper house as well. Federal Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, the elder brother of the secretary general of the Mahaz, urged the house to consider the fair demand for Bahawalpur province. The demand amounts division of the south Punjab along linguistic lines. To many the demand makes no sense given the political dynamics of the region. They argue that the proposed Bahawalpur province will not be economically viable.

The creation of a new province will ease the administrative burden on the Punjab and ameliorate the misery of the people

The southern Punjab produces more than 80 per cent of the cotton in the province. Last year, however, the target of 10 million bales was not met and the production came toa meagre 4.6 million bales. The shortfall was blamed on shortage of irrigation water. The complaints of mismanagement and corruption in the Irrigation Department have long been blamed for theft and scarcity of water. The governments pay no attention to the problem. Many farmers have menwhile switched to sugar cane after the establishment of sugar mills in south Punjab. The vast area under sugarcane, a high delta crop, is causing scarcity of water.

South Punjab is also known for its mango orchards. In 2008-09 Pakistan ranked 6th in mango producing countries of the world. It was ranked 11th among exporters, earning only 3 per cent of the world export proceeds. India, the top exporter, earned 18 per cent of the global export proceeds. The latest figures are not available.

The south Punjab has been self-sufficient in the past. Three rivers; Sutlej, Chenab and Indus flowed through it. It had a distinct culture and language. It was during Ranjeet Singh’s reign, after the fall of Muzaffar Khan, that Multan lost its autonomy and was ruled by a nazim who enjoyed the status of an independent ruler but had the support of the Maharaja.

Bahawalpur was a princely state. It had 300 miles river frontage. By following the pattern of Sindh, the state developed a large portion of its land for cultivation. The British, trying to restrain Maharaja Ranjit Singh, developed an alliance in 1833 with the Nawab of Bahawalpur, that had a great impact on the economy of the state. The navigation was opened in Indus and Sutlej to help the state export its surplus produce. The customs and transit duties also became a great source of income.

Dera Ghazi Khan was the great producer of indigo. It was located on the transit route for Kandahar and Kabul. Hindu traders from Shikarpur frequented the town as noted by Alexander Burns, a special envoy of the governor general to Maharaja Ranjit Singh who travelled via River Indus in 1830. The Hindu capital found its way to the agricultural land and Burns suggested the importance of indigo which was a commercial crop.

When British took control of the Punjab in 1858 it was divided into five administrative divisions. Multan was one of those. After the partition it was placed under Lahore.

The south Punjab has the capacity to take care of its people financially and administratively.

The creation of the new province will ease the administrative burden of the Punjab and ameliorate the misery of its people. The Punjab has not been a viable administrative unit. The governance has been poor. It seems that the political elite is not interested in the problems faced by the people. It seems that the central Punjab is unwilling to let the people of south Panjab have a separate province that will have its independent allocation of resources.

The writer is an instructor at English Language Centre at Taif University