Lahore: The proposal to carve out a new province of South Punjab from Pakistan's most populous and politically crucial state of Punjab has gained momentum, with all parties except the ruling PML-N agreeing to it.
Following a resolution moved by the PML-Q to create a new province comprising 11 districts in the Seraiki-speaking belt, the Punjab Assembly will debate the matter when it meets on August 11 for a session requisitioned by the Pakistan People's Party.
The creation of new provinces, especially South Punjab, is being vigorously debated on talk shows on TV news channels and in the media.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Punjab Governor Latif Khosa, all leaders of the PPP, have underlined the need for new provinces on administrative grounds.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif, whose PML-N party rules Punjab, has constituted a committee of party members to come up with recommendations on the issue.
Javed Hashmi, a senior vice-president of the PML-N who has been sidelined by the party, has not only backed the move to create South Punjab but called for dividing Punjab, a province of over 90 million people, into four provinces.
However, Sharif and his brother Shahbaz, the Chief Minister of Punjab, fear the PML-N will lose power if the new provinces are created.
Some analysts have described the PPP and the PML-Q's support for the move to create South Punjab as a clever ploy to take on the PML-N in its stronghold of Punjab.
Governor Khosa said the revenue generated by the southern part of Punjab is being spent in Lahore and other districts.
"When we talk about creation of new provinces, we are accused of fanning ethnicity. The Seraiki belt has only one major hospital, which is not fair," he said.
Khosa reasoned that if all units are equal, the federation will be strengthened.
"The Sharifs should sit with us and we will remove their apprehensions about the creation of new provinces," he said. He, however, warned if Punjab is not divided into two provinces, Lahore will become like Karachi.
He was referring to the political strife and ethnic killings that have rocked the southern port city over the past few weeks.
"The people of under-developed districts have the same right on Pakistan as those of major cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad," Khosa said.
Federal Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said, "If the PML-N throws the PML-Q's resolution (in the assembly for creating South Punjab) in the dustbin, the people will reject the Sharifs".
The creation of a new province will help redress grievances of people living in under-developed districts of Punjab, she said.
"After the creation of small provinces, the federation will get strengthened," she added.
PML-Q president and former premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said the creation of South Punjab had become inevitable and those opposing it will have no future in politics.
"The Sharifs should not oppose the move only because of the apprehension that they may not have power there (South Punjab)," he said.
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