Sunday, 7 August 2011

New Provinces ; Legitimate Demand..?


The problem which I see with the formation of the new provinces is that there is no public movement or mass protests in this regard in Seraiki belt, Bahawalpur or in the Hazara area. There are some scattered public meetings but they were without any luster and only few of the defeated politicians were using this as a new lever of power, which might provide them chance to rejoin the fray.
On the merit, the thought about the formation of new provinces is not without water. It’s rather sounds more logical in both historical and the administrative perspective. Lahore is the hub for the Punjab, and it is far far away from Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Attock and from Mianwali. Also it is very evident that Lahore eats up most of the budget for the Punjab province, and you can compare other cities of the Punjab with Lahore.
Also for the poor people it is very hard and demanding to travel to Lahore from Southern or Northern Punjab for their officials works and they cannot afford the living and accommodation in Lahore. Given the huge population of the Punjab, it has become virtually impossible to govern justifiably. So the demand for the new provinces is legit, but it should be on administrative basis, however any division based on ethnic and racial basis should be discouraged.
But what after that? What happened after the renaming of the NWFP? There is no vision in practice right now to ensure that there wouldnt be any mess after the split of Punjab and there wouldnt be more and more demand for provinces from all the provinces. Population of Pakistan comprises as; Punjabis 44.15%, Pukhtoon’s 15.42%, Sindhis 14.1%, Saraikis 10.53%, Muhajir’s (7.57%), Balochis 3.57% and Others 4.66%. This might never end, so beware....!

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