Haste makes waste
A lot of huffing and puffing in Punjab Assembly and then everybody settling for what carries the semblance of a rational solution. This is how one would interpret the unanimous resolution on the Seraiki and Bahalwapur provinces. The resolution would hopefully bring an end to the ongoing chest-thumping. Both the PPP and PML(N) have given concessions, the former by agreeing to Bahawalpur Province and the latter to the ‘Southern Province.” Apparently both have realised that an announcement of agreement was sufficient for the time being while the actual realisation of the demand could be postponed for sometime. The resolution offers a win-win solution to both as they can tell their voters in south Punjab that they are receptive to the popular demand. Carving out a new province is a far more intricate matter that renaming an old one. And yet the PPP seems to have learnt little from the agitation, violence, shootings and the continuing animosities as a result of the rechristening of the old NWFP. Not that the new provinces are not needed but this has to be done after sufficient preparation which has been ignored on account of short-term political exigencies. A number of vital matters have to be decided before the Seraiki province is created. Which districts would comprise the new federal entity? Where will the districts with a mixed population go? What will be the fate of D I Khan, a centre of the Seraiki movement and wistfully remembered as damaan by Seraiki poets like Khwaja Farid? What will be principle of water sharing between the old and the new province, both dependent on the same river system? How will the assets be divided?
The suggestion for a commission to thrash out the issues is a pragmatic move. Hopefully, the commission would also take up other related issues including the demand for Hazara province and Qabailistan province demanded by the FATA parliamentarians. New provinces should be crated in a way that this unites rather than divides the people of Pakistan.
