A large number of Saraiki speaking people on Sunday held a protest demonstration outside the National Press Club in the backdrop of heated debate in parliament and the media over the creation of a new province on administrative basis.
The protesters chanted slogans against the Punjab government for creating confusion over the issue as they condemned the creation of new province on the basis of administrative needs. They said the beneficiaries of internal colonisation in the Saraiki belt had grabbed their lands, usurped the business and job opportunities and kept the locals poor and backward, therefore, they were united more than ever to oppose the national, linguistic, cultural and historical rights of the Saraiki people.
They said the exploitive forces had been creating hurdles in the way of carving out the Saraiki province in the name of national interest. The anti-Saraiki forces were hell-bent to construct and reinforce different excuses and myths against the province. Speaking on the occasion, Saraiki nationalist Mazar Khan, who led the protest, said the Saraiki province did not mean the separation of administrative control as it was an expression of their national identity.
“We have been demanding nothing but our identity which is the right of every citizen,” he added. He said every province was based upon its ethnicity and the Saraiki people also required their separate civilisation like others, which could not be given to them by the separation of administrative control. “Saraiki people are generating huge revenue, but the budget allocation for their welfare is just too little,” he said, adding that they were not ready to suffer discriminations.
The protesters said the argument that the Saraiki province would weaken the federation must be verified on empirical grounds. They said in the countries like India, which were responsive to people’s call for creation of new provinces, the federation had been strengthened. Khadim Hussain, another nationalist, said the separate province should consist of Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha division and Dera Ismail Khan divisions, adding that it was the only way to provide identity to the Saraiki people.
Saraikis press for ethnicity-based province
