A blessed Bahawalpur and a deprived Multan

LAHORE: Bahawalpur seems to be the most blessed district of an otherwise deprived South Punjab as it has constantly received tremendous favours from the PMLN government since 2022.

At present, a number of key offices are held by the politicians who hail from the historic city of Bahawalpur whereas rest of the Southern belt of Punjab, that in arguably comprises of at least 10 districts of Punjab including Multan, Khanewal, Lodhran, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, Layyah, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan have a marginal or even no representation in the Punjab or Federal Cabinet. After Shehbaz Sharif took over as the Prime Minister in 2022, the governor he picked for Punjab was from Bahawalpur in form of Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman who is still holding the office, though he is likely to be replaced by a new figure pertaining to PPP.

After the present Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz took over, she nominated Zaheer Iqbal Channar, son of former Provincial Minister Iqbal Channar for slot of Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly. Zaheer hails from Bahawalpur. A few days later, her 18-member cabinet had only two ministers from South Punjab whereas she picked seven from Lahore only and rest from Central Punjab.

Out of the two who belong to Southern Punjab, one hails from Bahawalpur in form of Kazim Pirzada. The other member of her cabinet representing Southern belt has been Sher Ali Gorchani who belongs to Rajanpur.

In this way, out of the total 22 privileged figures of PMLN from Punjab, including the CM, 18 cabinet members, speaker, deputy speaker and the governor, three belong to Bahawalpur, one from Rajanpur and rest from Lahore or Central part of Punjab.

Now, in the latest development, Bahawalpur has received another favour from PMLN as seasoned politician Riaz Pirzada has also been inducted in the Federal cabinet. His nephew, Kazim Pirzada is already in Punjab cabinet. In the Federal and Punjab cabinets, one thing is common that the Southern belt of Punjab has only received two ministries but Bahawalpur seems most blessed. At present, the figures like Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman, Federal Minister Riaz Pirzada, Provincial Minister Kazim Pirzada and Deputy Speaker Zaheer Iqbal Channar belong to the same city.

Quite contrary to this, the historic city of Multan seems to be completely absent, at least in the Punjab set up. It was expected that Sheikh Salman Naeem, a PMLN MPA from Multan who made headlines while defeating Shah Mehmood Qureshi in 2018 as an Independent candidate would be picked in the Punjab cabinet. However, his name was not included.

In almost every set up, the city of Multan which is also termed the capital of South Punjab gets representation in either Punjab or Federal setup. In all the years like 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2008, 2013 and, 2018 figures like Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Nazim Hussein Shah, Iqbal Khakwani, Ihsanud Din Qureshi, Dr Akhtar Malik in Punjab or at Federal level, Sikandar Hayat Bosan have served as ministers. Besides, the city that have witnessed figures like former CM Punjab Nawab Sadiq Qureshi, Governor Punjab Makhdoom Sajjad Hussein Qureshi, Federal Minister like Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Speaker and Prime Minister in form of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani seem totally out of the power this time. In a city where PMLN had to face a tough time in the hands of PTI and PPP, the local people believe that at least a party elected MPA should have been made the part of the set up. Same situation prevails in Multan division where neither anyone from Hiraj family or other groups have been picked. From Bahawalnagar, the situation is not different.