The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government has decided to introduce a constitutional bill to the National Assembly for the creation of a South Punjab province. The move has been criticised by many as a bid to blackmail parliamentarians hailing from southern Punjab and pressure them into siding with the government.

The government has circulated a summary for approval by the federal cabinet to amend the Constitution in order to divide the Punjab province. According to the draft, the South Punjab province will have three divisions, 56 seats in the National Assembly and a provincial assembly have 119 seats.

The Ministry of Law and Justice has circulated the Constitution Amendment Bill 2022 for the approval of the federal cabinet for the creation of a new province comprising Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions called South Punjab, the cabinet summary says. Additionally, on Friday last, the minister for foreign affairs, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, submitted a constitutional amendment bill for the establishment of South Punjab province to the National Assembly speaker.

The foreign minister said the creation of South Punjab province was in a part of the manifesto of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). He said “Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his address to a public meeting at Mailsi, had announced his government’s plan to bring the constitutional amendment bill in the parliament.

“On his instruction, I presented the bill to the National Assembly, which had been vetted by the Ministry of law. The prime minister has fulfilled the promise he made with the people of south Punjab,” said the minister.

The move has been described as a political gimmick by the nationalist parties of south Punjab. According to these parties, Imran Khan and the PTI are nowhere bear the two thirds majority needed in the National Assembly required for an amendment to the constitution. In the past it has been argued that the province should be created on the basis of administrative need. Former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani, the leader of the opposition in the Senate, clarified in the Senate session that the PPP was demanding a separate province and not a secretariat for the people of south Punjab. “We are demanding a province, not a secretariat. It is no longer a colonial system where limited democracy can work,” said the PPP senator.

According to Abdul Majeed Kanju, the Seraiki National Party (SNP) president, no government leader has been sincere about the creation of a Seraikistan province. He says the creation of a Seraikistan province requires the acceptance of the identity of Seraiki people as a nation. “They don’t accept Seraiki as a nation. That is why they want to create just a secretariat or a province on an administrative basis. That is not acceptable to our wasabi. We are the main stakeholders.”

He says the introduction of the bill at this stage is a tactic to get the attention of the wasaib and other politicians. “If Imran Khan was serious about this, why did he keep silent for three and a half years,” Kanju asks.

He says it is unfortunate that in the past too, at the end of their terms, political parties have moved bills in the National Assembly to create a south Punjab province. The proposed legislation ended up in the dustbin every time. “The fate of the bill presented by the PTI will similar,” said the SNP president.

“The creation of South Punjab is not an issue for the political elite. It is a mere slogan for them. The ruling elite have achieved what they wanted. They developed consensus over an ordinance but nothing was done for the creation of Serakistan. The people of the wasaib are amused by the lip service they pay the cause,” adds Kanju.

Seraikistan Democratic Party chairman, Rana Muhammad Faraz Noon, says that the Seraiki wasaib has been betrayed many times. “It is unlikely that there will be any progress on the issue as the government is facing a no-confidence motion.”

Ikram Mirani, president of Seraiki Lok Sanjh (SLS) says that the PTI government is not sincere about the creation of the province. He says the bill has been introduced at a time when the government is fighting for its survival in the face of popular discontent and a vote of no-confidence motion in the National Assembly.

The Law and Justice Committee of the National Assembly had, in 2019, recommended the creation of a parliamentary committee to consider the issue and work to build parliamentary consensus on the creation of the new province. This recommendation was not implemented by the government.

Mirani says that the introduction of the bill at this time reeks of insincerity. “It is clear to us that the government wishes to exploit the legitimate grievances of the people of the Siraiki wasaib to delay and distract from the constitutionally mandated process by which it must submit to a vote of no confidence. That no work has been done over the last three years to build a parliamentary consensus on the issue is a sign that the government is not interested in addressing the issue with sincerity. We find these efforts to be an affront to those who have dedicated their lives to this struggle. This is another attempt by those in power to violate the dignity of the people of the Seraiki wasaib,” says the SLS president.

“We vehemently reject any effort to violate the constitutionally mandated process by which a vote of no confidence must be undertaken in the National Assembly. The grievances of the people of the Seraiki wasaib can only be addressed when democracy and the Constitution of Pakistan reign supreme,” Mirani adds.

The writer is a reporter at   The News International