The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday demanded the government set up a national commission for the formation of new provinces in the country with a substantive consultation with the opposition. The PML-N’s special committee on new provinces met at Islamabad with party President Nawaz Sharif in the chair, wherein the committee chairman Senator Raja Zafarul Haq presented the committee’s preliminary findings.
The committee endorsed the policy on new provinces enunciated by Nawaz in his address to the PML-N Central General Council last month, in which he said the country needed new provinces on an administrative basis and the PML-N would support the formation of new provinces on these grounds. “To accomplish national consensus on these goals and to achieve the required constitutional amendments and consequent division of resources, the PML-N demands the government form a national commission with substantive consultation of the opposition,” said a press release issued by the party.
It said the meeting also discussed in detail the situation in Sindh arising due to unprecedented bloodshed in targeted killings and the policy somersaults of the government regarding local government system.
“The committee felt that the Zardari regime had insulted the people of Sindh through a de facto division of the province, thereby sacrificing the interests of the people of Sindh on the altar of political expediency,” it added.
The PML-N expressed complete solidarity with the people of Sindh and assured them of opposing “any move by any quarter that will harm the interest of the Sindh’s citizens”.
A source in the PML-N told Pakistan Today that the special committee members had proposed Nawaz to ask the government to set up a national commission for the creation of new provinces on purely administrative grounds under a national framework, besides formulating specific parameters of population, resource generation and resource distribution on judicious basis, so that new provinces could ensure good governance.
A 15-member special committee was formed by PML-N President Nawaz Sharif on August 1, mandated to analyse the government’s claims on new provinces and come up with its recommendations within four-to-five days.
Headed by Zafarul Haq, the committee included Javed Hashmi, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal, Mamnoon Hussain, Yaqoob Khan Nasir, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Salahuddin Tirmizi, Tehmina Daultana, Arshad Khan Leghari and Chaudhry Jaffer Iqbal.
Unveiling the recommendations made by the committee, the source said the committee had proposed that the creation of new provinces was a need of the hour, but they should be carved out on an administrative basis, rather than on lingual or ethnic grounds.
“The committee members said large provincial units had inherited corruption and bad governance while smaller administrative units would be viable, be helpful in resource saving and help address grievances and delivery of rights to the people,” added the source.
“The committee arrived on a consensus that the PPP was only exploiting the issue of Saraiki province to gain political mileage against the PML-N in Punjab,” the source said.
He said some members also suggested creation of around a dozen new provinces across the country, and under the proposal, four new provinces should be carved in Punjab, two in Sindh, three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two provinces in Balochistan.
“But, the proposal was rejected by a majority of members as well as Nawaz… they were of the opinion that the number, boundaries and such other matters related to new provinces would be discussed at the commission level and the PML-N would not float such proposals in the media and political circles,” the source added.