Amidst allegations of double standards and demands for voting on a ‘resolution’ to pave the way for creation of new provinces in the country supported by chaotic sloganeering, particularly by members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khurshid Shah told the National Assembly on Friday that the government would introduce two separate bills in the House on the very first day of the next session for the creation of a Saraiki and a Hazara province. Shah said the bills would be forwarded to the respective provincial assemblies after being passed by parliament. Cracks amongst the coalition partners are getting wider as the issue of new provinces stretches on, with two treasury parties – MQM and the Awami National Party (ANP) – embroiled in a vigorous tug of war. On the other hand, the PML-N is in a fix over the issue, having publicly supported the move but at the same time hiding behind the shield of the constitution, saying the National Assembly is not the appropriate forum to initiate the process of the creation of new provinces. The PPP’s Nadeem Afzal Gondal proved to be more than straightforward in telling the wrangling parliamentarians that no new provinces could be carved out unless the ‘powers’ gave the go-ahead. He told the parliamentarians why, in his opinion, his colleagues might be feeling hesitant in saying that the military establishment and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was ruling the Balochistan province. The MQM’s Farooq Sattar, however, replied that if some other forces were taking decisions on behalf of parliament, all the legislatures should resign en masse. Sheikh Waqas Akram of the PML-Quaid supported the creation of new provinces and said three resolutions were moved in the Punjab Assembly but regrettably, it did not take them up for discussion and passage. The proceedings went downhill after Haider Abbas Rizvi of the MQM pressed the deputy speaker to hold a vote on the resolution his party had tabled in the House on the new provinces and the chair declining to admit it as a resolution moved in the House. Shah first said the government would soon introduce a bill for the creation of a Saraiki province but towards the end of the proceedings, as the MQM pressed the government further to consider a Hazara province as well, Shah assured the protesting parliamentarians that “we will work under the constitution”. As Sattar pleaded his case further, Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the ANP said his party was not against the creation of new provinces but a final decision in this regard should be taken only by the provinces concerned.
