- File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Out of the blue, demands for new provinces, which envision to split some of Pakistan’s existing units vertically and horizontally and could become a major campaign issue in the next election, got a big sentimental and noisy boost in the National Assembly on Tuesday, overshadowing an upsurge of protests against gas shortages.

After some noisy and unruly scenes over a demand from the government-allied Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for an immediate debate on a resolution moved by it for the creation of at least two new provinces by splitting the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani too joined the fray and came out with his strongest support to date in parliament for the cause of a proposed Seraiki province in southern Punjab and what he called other “smaller provinces”.

When tempers cooled down following a suspension of proceedings for about half an hour, the house decided to debate the MQM resolution on Thursday, overruling the demand of an apparently isolated Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), the main opposition party, that the matter be deferred until the next session expected to be called later this month after the scheduled prorogation of the present session on Thursday.

The government-allied Awami National Party (ANP), which leads a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with federally ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), also came out strongly against the idea of splitting its province horizontally to make its mainly non-Pashtun Hazara division in the east as a new “Hazara province” as well as making a new province of Pakhtun-inhabited seven administrative agencies of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) bordering Afghanistan, but finally acquiesced to having a debate that would allow lawmakers to express their views that could only build a momentum for any future plans rather than make any changes on the ground.

New provinces can be created only through a constitutional amendment, which must be passed by two-thirds majorities of both houses of parliament, and a constitution amendment bill that can alter the limits of a province cannot be presented to the president for assent unless it has been passed by not less than two-thirds of the total membership of that province.

Demands for creating new provinces, including a Seraiki province of the Seraiki-speaking belt of southern Punjab by a horizontal split of the Punjab province, have often been voiced by individuals from these areas on different occasions.

But Tuesday’s was an unprecedented parochial outburst in the present parliament, which seemed to have outperformed usual opposition protests such as recent walkouts over the gas crisis, and often ignored calls for restraint from some senior members on the treasury benches like PPP chief whip Khursheed Ahmed Shah.

The move came from the MQM, fuelled by a resounding oratory of its deputy parliamentary leader Haider Abbas Rizvi, in the early part of what was a private members’ day soon after a token PML-N walkout against non-disbursal of full amounts of development funds allocated by the prime minister for schemes proposed by house members.

The prime minister’s intervention came after the house reassembled following the break amidst slogan-chanting in support of new provinces which was also joined by two PPP members.

“I am totally in support of a (new) suba (province),” said Mr Gilani, who appeared agitated over what he called a “highly objectionable” remark by PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Mehtab Khan that the prime minister often talked of a Seraiki province when visiting his Seraiki-speaking home town of Multan because of a lack of faith in Pakistan’s future.

“If a Seraiki suba cannot be made, and (other) smaller provinces cannot be made when I am here, then when can it happen?” he asked, after a strong rejoinder to the senior PML-N lawmaker in which he recalled the role of his ancestors in the Pakistan movement in association with the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and said: “We are the makers of Pakistan, not its breakers.”

The PPP has already announced that the creation of a Seraiki province would be part of its manifesto for the next election, which is due after it completes its five-year term in March next year, and has also pledged to support an additional demand of its ally Pakistan Muslim League-Q for the creation of a Hazara province.

ANP’s constitution calls for a Seraiki province, while demands have also been made for the revival of former Bahawalpur province and creation of a separate province of the Pashtun-inhabited north of Balochistan province or its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The PML-N has said it too was not against new provinces if created for administrative reasons rather than on ethnic or linguistic grounds.

During Tuesday’s turmoil, which did not allow a considerable private members’ agenda, PML-N’s Sardar Mehtab suggested the question of new provinces be referred to a special parliamentary committee that may be set up on the lines of the now-defunct Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms that authored the landmark Eighteenth Amendment, which restored the parliamentary system of government as was provided in the original 1973 constitution and gave more autonomy to provinces.

ANP’s Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and Pervaiz Khan Advocate strongly opposed the talk of dividing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without a decision first by the provincial assembly.

The leader of theoretically independent and mostly pro-government lawmakers from Fata, Munir Khan Orakzai, called for the creation of a Fata province to be called “Ghayuristan” (land of honour), but his demand, supported by at least two other members from the area, was opposed by a Fata member who has joined the PPP, Syed Akhonzada Chittan, who said a Fata council should be elected by direct vote to decide whether the region be part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or a separate province.

Though some senior PPP members like Khursheed Shah and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moula Bakhsh Chandio said their party supported the new provinces, a veteran party member, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, said the creation of any new provinces now would not stop the process and warned against the creation of a Northern Ireland-like situation in Karachi, where he said ethnic Sindhis had been treated badly over the past 15 to 20 years.

In the heat of argument over new provinces, the prime minister targeted what he called a painful remark of PML-N president and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a party meeting in Karachi on Monday that his party, if voted to power in the next elections, would again establish military courts in Sindh as it did during its 1997-99 tenure, saying democracy should not take such a course.

And despite a clarification by Sardar Mehtab that Mr Sharif was not in favour of military courts, Mr Rizvi of the MQM also lambasted the PML-N chief on that count and asked: “After all why is this enmity for Karachiwalas.”