NAWABSHAH, May 11: The government of Sindh has sought proposals to divide the taluka of Nawabshah and asked the officials of the district government to submit related information, sources said. A senior official told Dawn that the Sindh government had sought a feasibility report for the division of taluka. He said: “The proposal was being prepared by us which would be submitted to the government in a day or two”.

Requesting anonymity, he said that the Muttahida was interested in the division of the taluka into three and in case of its implementation, Nawabshah taluka, with nine union councils, would not be able to generate any revenue as there would be no rural area with it in the new set-up.

He said that Jam Sahib was also a backward area having no infrastructure which would not be suitable to be a taluka.

He said that a proposal to divide Nawabshah into two instead of three talukas was being floated to the government through which Nawabshah would have 14 union councils while Daur would have 13 union councils.

Nawabshah district (rural) with three talukas consists of 27 union councils, while Sakrand has 12 union councils and Doulatpur spreads over 12 union councils.

Taluka Nawabshah, having a population of approximately 600,000, is a stronghold of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) from where PPP secured three provincial seats i.e. PS-24, 25 and 26 in the general elections held in 2002.

Nawabshah city, which is a part of taluka with nine union councils, is supposed to be a stronghold of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which was keenly interested in its division into three talukas i.e. Nawabshah with nine UCs, Jam Sahib and Daur with nine UCs each. The MQM had already submitted a proposal to the provincial government in this regard.

Members of the taluka council, Nawabshah, had already rejected the proposed division through a resolution in its session held on Tuesday.

A meeting of the PPP, Nawabshah, held here on Wednesday adopted a resolution opposing the proposed division.

It said that the division was being carried out on an ethnic basis and they would held a protest demonstration on May 14 against the move.

A member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, who also requested anonymity, said that the division of Nawabshah would solve the problems being faced by the people who would get their work done at their doorsteps and MQM would appreciate the division.