Proposing that Punjab should be divided into three provinces, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo has said that there would no harm if Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was also given the status of a province.
Talking to Pakistan Today in an exclusive interview, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo said people were demanding more provinces so that the administration is more efficient and their issues are resolved at their doorsteps.
“Lahore, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi should comprise one province, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Sargodha another one and Bhawalpur, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan as the third one,” Wattoo said.
He further added that his proposal excluded the element of division of Punjab on ethno-linguistic basis, the grounds on which the PML-N had stated to oppose the creation of more provinces.
He said that Punjab was a very large province and the Indian government had bifurcated the Indian or Eastern Punjab into Haryana and Punjab long ago after realising that smaller provinces meant that the people could be served better. He said the PPP had listened to the demands of the people and had taken up the issue of the division of provinces at the presidency. When asked about Hazara region, he said that he personally would support the creation of Hazara as an independent province from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “I went to Hazara region and met Baba Haider Zaman. I personally think there is no harm if Hazara is given the status of a province,” Wattoo said. Replying to a question about the allegations that the elections fo the Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) had been rigged, Wattoo said that the recent elections in the AJK were exemplary in terms of transparency and fair play.
“I called the representatives of all political parties contesting polls in the AJK prior to the elections and ask for their suggestions to make the election process transparent and we acted on their suggestions and everyone, including PML-N’s Raja Farooq Haider, expressed satisfaction over the arrangements,” the minister said, adding that he had committed to the parties not to go to the AJK for campaigning after the announcement of election schedule. “I abided by the commitment and only went with the PM,” Wattoo said.
Replying further to the allegations of rigging, Wattoo said that the PML-N participated in all the AJK elections, including that of the reserved seats, oath-taking ceremony and promised to support the PPP’s AJK government in its positive initiatives. “It means that the elections were transparent and I request the president and the PM to send letters of appreciation to the chief secretary, the IG Police and the election commissioner of the AJK for making transparent elections possible,” Wattoo said.
When asked if it was ethical of the PM to visit the AJK during the elections, Wattoo said Nawaz Sharif and then his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif went there with 500 policemen of the Punjab government. “They came to the AJK for electioneering with 500 policemen like a warrior taking over the region. The PPP workers in reaction asked the PM to not to leave the people of the AJK at the mercy of the Sharif brothers and visit the AJK,” Wattoo said.
When asked that Sardar Attiqe Khan had demanded that Pakistan’s political parties should not get involved in the AJK elections, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo said that PPP was in the AJK since its formation.“It is the PML-N which went to the AJK just before elections and compelled many Muslim Conference workers to change their political affiliations,” Wattoo said, explaining the background of Sardar Attique’s statement.
When questioned about the recent talks between India and Pakistan regarding resolution of Kashmir dispute, the federal minister said that Pakistan could not accept any solution to the Kashmir issue until it was endorsed by the Kashmiri people. “No solution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue is acceptable to Pakistan if it does not reflect the will of Kashmiri,” Wattoo said categorically.
When asked if any flexibility in the traditional stances of the two countries was assured in backdoor diplomacy regarding resolution of the longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan, Wattoo said the PPP government was not averse to backdoor diplomacy but it would never support anything which excluded the people of Kashmir. “We are an elected government and we have to take the desires of the people into account. We are not dictators like Musharraf,” he said.
When questioned about the allegation of the opposition parties that the government was compromising on violence in Karachi and was not serious, the minister conceding that the element of compromise referred to the recent meeting held at the Awian-e-Sadr and said that certain concrete proposals had been discussed there and he hoped peace would soon return to the city. He, however, added that no single party, either it was PPP, ANP or MQM, could bring peace to the city in individual capacity and for that all political parties jointly would have to work out a strategy.He also added that Karachi should be deweaponized and no political compromises should be made in this regard.
Dispelling the impression that judiciary and the executive were moving towards a clash, the minister said that the government of his party strengthened institutions of the Parliament, Judiciary and media as they had grown weaker over the years because of dictatorship. He added that his party had also strengthened the federation and devolved 17 ministries to the provinces, a long-standing demand of the provinces and their legitimate right enshrined in the Constitution.
