Realising the Saraiki dream

In a bid to avoid controversy regarding the creation of a Saraiki province keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, President Asif Ali Zardari has given the go-ahead to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s second-tier leadership to implement the first demarcation plan on a Saraiki province focusing on three divisions of southern Punjab: Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan Today learnt on Saturday.
This would be the first demarcation for the new province proposed by the ruling party. “The president is clear in his mind that he wants to include three divisions in the Saraiki province, although there have been assertion by two other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – Dera Ismail Khan and Tank – while some party leaders also wanted to include two districts of Balochistan and parts of Sindh including Dera Allah Yar and Nasirabad,” a PPP source said.
The source said the president did not want to annoy the Awami National Party (ANP) leadership by accepting the demands of the people of DI Khan, which might offend the PPP’s coalition partner, the ANP.
The source said further that according to plan, Makhdoom Shahabuddin would move a resolution during the upcoming session of the National Assembly for the creation of a Saraiki province on behalf of the PPP. “President Zardari has directed the leadership of the party’s South Punjab chapter to mobilise the party workers in favour of the creation of a Saraiki province and the party’s president for South Punjab chapter, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, is set to start a mass contact drive from January 14,” said the source. Shahabuddin, who is also the Federal Textiles Minister, confirmed his plan to launch a mass contact drive from January 14. He told Pakistan Today that he would visit various areas of the three divisions.
“We also plan to complete reorganisation of the party in all three divisions of the [proposed] Saraiki province,” he said. Asked whether he would move a resolution in the upcoming session on the issue, Shahabuddin answered in the affirmative.
“Yes, the party leadership has honoured me with this historic task and I am working on the resolution,” he said.
Another source told Pakistan Today that Shahabuddin had also finalised three candidates for the post of the Saraiki province’s PPP secretary, which he would recommend to the party leadership upon his return from his campaign. Those recommended by Shahabuddin included Punjab Assembly Members Chaudhry Ehsan-ul-Haq Ahsan Naulatia, elected from Muzaffargarh, Malik Mohammed Amir Dogar, elected from Multan, and Sarwar Akhtar, Divisional President of the PPP from DG Khan.
“Since Shahabuddin himself is a Saraiki, there is a strong possibility that a settler would be appointed as general secretary. In such a case, competition would be between Chaudhry Ehsan and Amir Dogar as both are settlers living in Saraiki areas for decades,” the source added.
The source said further that though Shahabuddin wanted to appoint MPA Shaukat Basra, who was his close aide and was also a settler from Bahawalnagar, there was a bar that the president and general secretary could not come from the same division. In order to accommodate other districts, either Dogar or Ehsan might be picked for the important slot of general secretary, he added.
“In such a case, Dogar is the favourite as he enjoys support from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani because he had won elections as a running mate with Gilani and his father, Senator Salahuddin Dogar, had funded Gilani’s campaign heavily,” added the source. Shahabuddin was appointed as president of the PPP’s South Punjab chapter on April 11, 2011.