Standing together

Foreign Minister and Vice Chairman PTI, Shah Mehmood Qureshi last week invited the opposition leaders to put a joint effort in making South Punjab a province. While supporting the Bill tabled in the Senate by Rana Mehmoodul Hasan of the PML (N), he said, “I invite all the opposition leaders to come forward to fulfill the long standing aspirations of the people of South Punjab.” Surprisingly enough the Bill though presented by PML (N), received instant support from PTI as well as PPP.

Responding to the call of Shah Mehmood, leader of the Opposition in Senate and former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also forcefully pointed out that the issue was so important that the PPP during its rule had already managed to get a bill for the creation of Bahawalpur province passed from the Senate. So probably for the first time in PTI’s tenure there seems to be a consensus on some issue.

According to a member present in the Senate, it was a practical demonstration of the famous saying of the 28th President of America, Woodrow T. Wilson, “We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.” But then the question is why this long pending issue is always reintroduced in the House before the general elections.

Interestingly enough on May 13, 2019, the PTI members Makhdoom Syed Samiul Hassan Gillani and Sardar Nasarullah Khan Dareshak jointly introduced a Bill seeking amendments to Article 1, 51, 59, 106, 175A, 198 and 298 of the Constitution to pave the way for creation of South Punjab province, consisting of territories of Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions having own provincial assembly and the high court. But unlike the recent Bill, a PML-N member opposed introduction of the amendment bill on the pretext that the bill required a proper homework.

Political observers have however, turned down this initiative saying, “That’s just a lot of rhetoric.” They say that if the memories of those now in their mid-70s can be relied upon, the Seraiki movement started way back in 1960s in response to the One Unit System. The movement gained momentum in 1975 when the Seraiki scholars organised the first Seraiki literary conference. In the 1980s Seraiki activism became a full-fledged political movement, resulting in the formation of Pakistan Seraiki Party. The party effectively managed to mobilize support for a separate province. But the party later on merged with PTI when Imran Khan promised to create south Punjab province within 100 days of from the day of taking over as the prime minister of the country. So there’s nothing new about this Bill.

Moreover, they argue that historically speaking in 2012, both Punjab Provincial Assembly and the National Assembly passed resolutions for the creation of new province in Punjab. These resolutions were supported by the PPP and PML (N). In 2013 general elections the PPP tried to cash in its effort for a Seraki province but failed to get support, as expected, from Seraiki voters. They got only one National Assembly seat from the Seraiki region. Hence no effort from either PPP or PML (N) was made to make south Punjab province.

Again in the 2018 the PTI promised to create a new province in South Punjab within the first 100 days of taking office, if they win. PTI won the election and just because of this promise won 30 out of 50 seats of the National Assembly in South Punjab. On August 15, 2018, the PTI MPA of Punjab Assembly, Mohsin Leghari tabled a resolution for the creation of a new province in South Punjab. But then again for reasons best known to the PTI stalwarts the issue was again put in to backburner.

Interestingly enough, now again the Bill is being supported by all the three major political parties. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi stood up after a hibernation of about two years to declare on the floor of the House that the ruling party stood by its electoral promise — expected to be fulfilled in 100 days — and sought support of all other parties to help make it a reality.

Though the Bill was tabled by a PML (N) member the PML (N) senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed was of the view that creation of a new province would open a Pandora’s Box, which the federation could not afford at the moment. “It will not stop here,” he argued. Instead of a new province, the PML-N senator said, provinces should be strengthened along with local governments under the 18th Amendment. There’s definitely a point in his arguments for according reports calls for a ‘Hazara province’ have already started making the rounds.

It may be mentioned here that while the people of Hazara division have long dreamt of a province of their own, the void left in the leadership after the demise of Baba Haider Zaman seems to have thrown a spanner on the cause. The followers of the movement believe that Hazara province will only become a reality once politicians from the region including Sardar Yousuf, Murtaza Abbasi, Senator Talha Mahmood, Captain (Retd) Safdar, Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah, Syed Qasim Shah, Saleh Mohammad Khan, and Azam Swati join hands for the cause.

However, the fact remains that demand for Hazara province so far failed to develop a momentum required to qualify a political movement. The resource mobilization theory states that political movements are the result of careful planning, organizing and fundraising rather than spontaneous uprisings or societal grievances. As such though the idea of a Hazara province have so far not been turned in to a full-fledged movement, the possibility of its becoming a solid movement cannot be ruled out if south Punjab province is created.

Here it may be mentioned that the idea of creating a province keeping in view a number of things like language, culture, living conditions etc.is not at all new. A number of examples of such ‘right-sizing’ of several provinces or states is available in the political history of various countries. India is also an instance where a number of new provinces have been formed over the last seven decades. Andhra Pradesh was the first state of Independent India formed on a linguistic basis on October 1, 1953 for Telugu-speaking people after prolonged agitations.

So Pakistan can also enter in to a phase of right-sizing itself with the creation of provinces Punjab and KP on similar grounds. But as of now in a country confronted with a number of problems, the Bill seeking a new province in south Punjab is not as simple as it looks. The process to create a new province is outlined in Article 239 of the Constitution. Changes to the boundaries of federating units require an amendment with a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, the Senate and the Provincial Assembly of the concerned unit – in this case Punjab.

How serious are the political parties in adding a fifth province can be judged from the fact that the issue is being politicised since 1980 by the political parties just to get seraiki votes. The Pakistan People’s Party managed to pass a bill for a Seraiki province from the Senate but nothing materialised. The PTI’s promise to create South Punjab within a hundred days of their reign is still not over. In short the rhetoric will increase as the 2023 polls approach and fade away as soon as the election is over.

To political analysts the belated tabling of a private member’s bill to create a separate province named South Punjab still seem to be a half-hearted effort. The PML (N) member who tabled the Bill got confused when a highly respected member of his party Mushahid Husain opposed the proposal of Seraiki province. Similarly, Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also nonplused while inviting all political parties to join hands in January 2022 instead of October 2018 according to PTI’s promise.