LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party has decided to revive the ‘dead issue’ of Punjab’s division.

PPP patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has reportedly asked party’s provincial leadership, especially the legislators, to raise the issue as the PML-N government had committed to creating two more provinces in the south Punjab.

“We will raise the issue in the Punjab Assembly to press the PML-N government to fulfill its promise of creating the Bahawalpur and Janoobi Punjab provinces, PPP parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Qazi Ahmed Saeed said.

Talking to Dawn, he said Mr Bilawal had also asked the PPP legislators to raise the voice for the people of the south Punjab. “The people of south are facing deprivation. They cannot come to Lahore for getting their issues resolved. We want courts, secretariat and other paraphernalia required for a province in the south Punjab,” said Mr Saeed who belongs to Rahim Yar Khan.

He said the PPP would remind the PML-N that it had promised to carve out two provinces in Punjab. “Now it seems to have backtracked after winning the election from there. By launching the Metro Bus project in Multan, the Punjab government thinks that it has done enough for the people of south Punjab. In the last budget the government had failed to fully utilize the development funds for the south,” he claimed. South Punjab PPP senior president Haider Zaman Qureshi said the PPP would raise the issue of two provinces in the south Punjab in the National Assembly and Senate as well.

“Once the massive rigging in the May 2013 election is exposed, the people will come to know that the PML-N had lost most of the seats in the south Punjab,” Mr Qureshi said.

“Even the PML-N legislators from the south Punjab are disappointed with their leadership in this regard. We will woo their support to press the PML-N to create new provinces,” he said.

Mr Qureshi said the people of the south Punjab needed hospitals, basic health units, clean water, industry and educational institutions and not Metro Bus like projects.

Senator Mohsin Leghari who has been vocal for the creation of a new province for the people of the south has submitted a constitutional amendment to the Senate.

“Most of the political parties, including PML-N, have committed to the creation of new provinces in their election manifestos of 2013. They should honour their commitments,” Mr Leghari said.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014