December 08, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: Eminent scholar and political analyst Dr Tariq Rehman Thursday proposed creating smaller, language-based provinces to end tensions between the existing federating units.

“This division should be accompanied with just distribution of resources,” the Quaid-i-Azam University professor said in a talk on ‘Autonomy within Federation’ at the Centre for Democratic Development of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Such a division would partially resolve the inter-provincial tensions “as the perception of dominance by Punjab would end”. He cited “the successful examples” of India, Canada, Switzerland and Spain in support of his argument.

Language-based divisions helped forge national unity in those countries. “Language brought peace, wherever it was used as basis for governance,” he observed.

Prof Rehman believed the idea would be workable for Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan too. But Sindh could pose problems and as such the exercise in the case of Pakistan would have to be carried out very carefully.

“Pakistan, in reality, is a unitary state. To create a secure country where ethnicity is no longer a threat, a truly federal or even a confederal order may be necessary,” he noted.

Ethnicity and diverse cultures would become a blessing in a political dispensation in which the federating units run their affairs and not a domineering Centre, he said. Eliminating real causes of tensions would require huge sacrifices by the Centre in the shape of less powerful bureaucracy and less expensive military.

“Frictions can have many names - manipulation, provincialism etc - but the only solution to them is honouring the perceptions of the masses and granting them economic rights,” he said.

In his view ethnicity was a major issue in Pakistan and a danger to the federation. “What we are seeing today is the repercussions of the policies of the Centre,” he remarked.

In Pakistan’s context, he said, language was used to mobilise Sindhi, Pashtun and Saraiki identities, which offered resistance to the hegemony of the Centre.

In Balochistan, militancy took predominance over language as means of resistance because the province lacked a viable educated intelligentsia, he explained.

However he saw ethnic demands as progressive because they lead to end of domination although ultimately the dominating elite is replaced by another elite class.

Prof Rehman also referred to the Bengali language movement, which asserted itself against the perceived domination of the West Pakistani ruling elite over what was East Pakistan at that time.

Replying to questions from the audience, he said linguistic identities assume the shape of expression of resentment against discrimination, injustice and insecurity.