Seraiki province to be carved out before elections: Zardari

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said the Seraiki province would be carved out before the next general elections. In a meeting with Pakistan People’s Party workers from Multan, he said time was ripe for the formation of a new province for the people of south Punjab, adding that he would visit every nook and corner of the south Punjab in a bid to carve out a Seraiki province.
He said that some people were opposing the new province for their vested interests, but they would have to face defeat.
He said the creation of a new province was the voice of the downtrodden people who had been facing tremendous problems for a long time. Regarding the much hyped ephedrine case, he said PM’s son Ali Musa Gilani was falsely implicated in the drug case. He said he had come to Multan to express solidarity with Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Zardari said he had voluntarily ceded his powers, while the Punjab chief minister was holding several ministries with himself.
He said the PPP was able to form its government in Punjab but it let the PML-N to do so. President Asif Ali Zardari called upon Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to immediately start consultative process with all political parties with a view to make a separate Seraiki province.
“The Seraiki province will be made by the present government this year,” he said.
President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president said it was not politics, but Seraiki province was meant to respect and honour the aspiration of the people of south Punjab. He said the people of the area had every right to demand their own province and the party leadership respected their wishes and aspirations.
Earlier, the president also had meetings with parliamentarians belonging to south Punjab and with women office bearers of PPP belonging to Multan, Khanewal, Vehari and Lodhran districts. During his meetings, the president said he felt great pleasure to be present among the representatives of the south Punjab and he would be regularly visiting the belt in the future also.
The president called upon the parliamentarians to highlight various achievements of the government to the people so that negative propaganda could automatically be countered.