The National Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution for creation of a new province for the people of Southern Punjab. The resolution was moved by the Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Farooq H Naek. Highlighting the sense of deprivation of the people of South Punjab, the resolution said
“The House hereby resolves that in order to address the grievances and to secure the political administrative and economic interests of the people in the Southern region of the province of the Punjab and to empower them in this regard, it is expedient that a new province to be known as Province of Janoobi Punjab be created from the present province of the Punjab”.
Stressing upon the Punjab government to formulate legislation in Punjab Assembly to create a new province, the resolution further added “This House thus calls upon the provincial assembly of the Punjab to present a bill in the Punjab Assembly to amend the constitution in accordance with the article 239 (4) of the constitution, for passage which would have the effect of altering the limits of province of Punjab, thereby creating province of Janoobi Punjab.”
There seems to be some confusion in media and in the minds of people of other parts of Pakistan regarding the authenticity of the issue. It is also a hot topic of discussion what has prompted the government in general and its ally party MQM to initiate a very strong campaign in media, assemblies and other forums for discussion on the formation of Seraiki province. There is an argument that political gains or distraction from other issues might be the idea behind this campaign but the following statistics reveal an entirely different story.
The province of Punjab is the second largest, most developed and most populous province of Pakistan. According to the different indicators it is considered the most prosperous province of Pakistan but paradoxically, Southern Punjab, sometimes also referred to as the Seraiki belt is one of the most backward regions of the country. This region has a very high incidence of poverty and the number of children who have never been enrolled in schools is highest in this region.1 Despite being the populous region in the province of Punjab, this region also has the least number of public and private sector universities.
Region Incidence of Poverty (%)
North 21.31%
Central 28.76%
South 50.1%
West 52.1%
Region Never enrolled in School(boys) Never enrolled in School (girls)
North 6% 15%
Central 12% 23%
South 30% 44%
West 27% 44.5%
Source: Punjab tops in infant mortality, poverty, income inequality
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=145337&Cat=5&dt=11/9/2008
The province of Punjab has the highest per capita income and its socio-economic indicators are generally higher than the national average. But district level data reveals that parts of southern Punjab are closer to Sindh and Balochistan in terms of poverty-related characteristics. The patterns are disturbing when analyzed in conjunction with the generally favorable status of the northern Punjab belt stretching from Rawalpindi to Lahore, and including the semi-industrialized districts of Gujrat, Gujranwala, and Sialkot amongst others.
This region has a strong feudal influence but families such as Queshis, Khosas, Gilanis, Gormanis and Legharis has so far failed to address to the sense of deprivation prevailing in the minds of the people of the region. This regions has the most poor infrastructure as regards the health, educational and public transport system The deprived and poor people of southern Punjab do want development, jobs, schools, roads and basic infrastructure.
The origin of the problem dates back to early years of Pakistan. Bahawalpur was the first state which announced accession to Pakistan as a federating unit and on April 29, 1951 a supplementary accession agreement was signed by Nawab Sadiq and Khawaja Nazimuddin under which Bahawalpur was made province of Pakistan (federating unit) and under this agreement the 1952 polls were held in the province and a provincial government was set up. Furthermore, in the draft constitution of 1954, officially printed by the Printing Press of Pakistan, Bahawalpur had the status of a province.
Miseries for the people of this region started surfacing with the creation of one-unit in the year 1955 when this province was announced as part of West Pakistan and later in 1970, under an LFO issued by military ruler Yahya Khan, one-unit was abolished and Bahawalpur was made a division of Punjab. Since that day the people of this region have been demanding a separate province for themselves but because of various reasons discussions on sub-national disparities have always been considered taboo in official circles in Pakistan.
In this scenario when the local feudal families have failed to solve the problems of the local people, the question arises that what the political parties have done so far to alleviate the situation. In its public meetings held in Multan and other areas of the southern Punjab, MQM has raised this issue several times. MQM has raised this issue several times in National Assembly and Senate also which has resulted in increased pressure on all the major political parties to publicly declare their policy on this issue. Finally, the National Assembly passed a resolution acknowledging the sufferings of people of this area and hopefully adaptation of this resolution will a major milestone in the creation of a new province for the deprived people.
Furthermore, it is required that all the major political parties and elected representatives also formulate legislation for other deprived areas of the country to form new provinces. One such example is the Hazara district where locals have been demanding for a new province for a long time now. Next step should be working towards provincial autonomy so that local elected members would be able to solve problems of their areas in a better manner and conflict among all the provincial units would be minimized.
