- Former president says party will create a new province to resolve problems facing people of South Punjab
By SHEIKH HAQ NAWAZ
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will change the electoral-political map of Punjab in the next general elections, and people will see themselves a new revolutionised political scenario pointing to their good future, party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview with this scribe.
The former president said that “the South Punjab is the most significant area in Punjab which has a special place in our national politics so we know its real problems and their long term solutions that is why we have been committed to make this area a new province”.
Zardari made it clear that the emergence of a new province, southern Punjab, was an unbreakable reality which could never be denied or ignored. “We have specially targeted this most important and extremely sensitive area so that we could play a vital role for bringing betterment in miserable lives of the people who have been facing the worst kind of poverty, all kinds of deprivation, crime, violence against women, terrorist attacks and honour-killings for a long time,” he added.
“We would win the electoral fight here (South Punjab) at every cost,” averred Zardari, saying that the majority of people of southern Punjab were with the PPP and they would surely cast their votes in its favor in the next general elections.
He further said that the political scenario of national politics was likely to change.
Zardari claimed that the PPP would end all deprivations of this long-neglected area after coming into power by establishing a new province named southern Punjab. “We laid the basis for the formation of this new province in our previous government by getting passed a bill by the National Assembly and a resolution by the Punjab Assembly,” he said.
Zardari said if the people of this area wanted to get a new province, then they must have to vote for the PPP that is the real representative of the masses.
Since the PPP wants to win the 2018 general elections on the slogan of the formation of a new province, its policy makers have already started working on towards this end.
Most of the bar associations in South Punjab also support the demand for creation of a new province for which they have been working constantly for the past two years.
Likewise, other political parties and non-political groups are also favoring this demand. Hence, the PPP central leadership is advocating this demand according to a well-planned strategy.
It may be mentioned here that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz could do nothing in this regard except offering a lollipop to the people of South Punjab. The PML-N could not even establish a semi-civil secretariat to resolve problems facing the people of South Punjab. Till date they have to travel to Lahore for this very purpose.
