RAHIM YAR KHAN: Our purpose is to ensure restoration of Bahawalpur province according to a resolution approved by the Punjab Assembly on May 9, 2012, said Sooba Bahawalpur Ittehad (SBI) core committee member Aasia Kamil at a press conference at the district press club on Tuesday.

Accompanied by other core committee members Tariq Hameed, Farkhanda Sheikh, Dr Mudmit Kamil and Nasreen Anwar, Aasia said the SBI was a non-political organisation working for the restoration of Bahawalpur province and the aim was to include the public and dignitaries in this movement.

She said restoration was essential for development and prosperity of the people of this area. In 1951 the Nawab of Bahawalpur state Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi had signed an agreement with Pakistan for merging with the country as a provincial unit. In 1952, through that agreement provincial assembly elections were held and Makhdoom Zada Hassan Mehmood was elected its first chief minister. But later after the elimination of one unit, Bahawalpur was not restored as a province.

In 1970, the people of Bahawalpur started a movement for restoration of the province and they were still carrying it on today, yet the people were deprived of their constitutional, realistic and historical right.

Aasia said State Minister for Interior, Education and Science Baleeghur Rehman, provincial minister Malik Iqbal Chunnar, MNA Tariq Bashir Cheema and former governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood had also assured them that they will support this movement for the right of people of the area.

The struggle for a south Punjab province or Seraiki province was a separate issue and their movement had no concern with them, she added.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2017