BAHAWALPUR: A women’s rally to demand the restoration of Bahawalpur province was taken out in the city on Thursday.

Participants were holding placards inscribed with demands of separate province as they marched on the main roads. The marched ended at the Islamia University Old Campus Chowk where they held a demonstration. They raised slogans against the government and urged the ruling party to announce Bahawalpur province.

The women’s rally is in fact the revival of women’s protest of the early 1970 when movement for restoration of Bahawalpur province was in its full swing spearheaded by the late Tahira Khan, an MPA. She used to lead women’s rallies for Bahawalpur province almost daily from Shikarpuri Gate to Farid Gate where participating women would hold a protest demonstration followed by a public meeting.

Due to Bahawalpur Suba Movement, Tahira’s father Late Mian Nizamuddin Haider of the then Council Muslim League (led by Late Mian Mumtaz Ahmed Khan Daultana), which was opposed President Ayub Khan’s Convention Muslim League (led by late Chaudhry Khaliquz Zaman), was elected MNA and Syed Tabish Alwari as MPA. The movement culminated with the firing on a separate province rally outside Farid Gate on April 24 1970 in which two workers were martyred. To commemorate the incident, the Bahawalpur movement leaders are now planning events on April 24 (Tuesday).

Later, the late MNA Mian Nizamuddind Haider along with his cousin the late MNA Makhdoom Noor Muhammad Hashmi from the family of Janubi Punjab Suba Mahaz president former MNA Khusro Bakhtiar refused to sign the 1973 Constitution, launched by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, for ignoring the Bahawalpur province.

Meanwhile, Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, chief of the Bahawalpur National Awami Party (BNAP), which stood for the demand for the restoration of Bahawalpur province, has reiterated his stance for the Bahawalpur province and rejected the demand of south Punjab province, the slogan raised by the newly established South Punjab Suba Mahaz by seven MNAs of the region.

Nawab Abbasi, in his message from Islamabad, read out by one of his close aides, Javed Khan Daulatzai, in a consultative meeting here on Thursday, was quoted as saying: “we cannot deviate from the identity of Bahawalpur and Cholistan in the shape of the demand of the restoration of Bahawalpur province”.

PROTEST: The work-charged employees of maintenance and repair (MR) section of the building department staged a demonstration in front of the office of executive engineer against the Punjab government’s department of communication and works (C&W) for non-payment of their salaries for the last nine months.

The protesters said that despite repeated requests for the payment of their salaries and regularisation of posts, their demands had not been met by the Punjab government.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018