BAHAWALPUR: The Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP) has opposed the restoration of Bahawalpur province.

Speaking to Dawn here on Saturday, PSP central secretary-general Muhammad Akbar Ansari and central deputy chairman Allama Iqbal Waseem alleged that those demanding restoration of Bahawalpur’s provincial status were playing with the future of the Seraiki and undermining the integrity of Pakistan.

They argued that the successors to the late Bahawalpur nawab Sadiq Abbasi had lost the legal right for the restoration of their former state as they were getting all the privileges which were incorporated in the merger agreement with the Pakistan government in 1954.

Moreover, they argued that under this agreement there was no provision of holding referendum on the issue. The merger agreement with the then West Pakistan on Dec 17, 1954 was unconditional and as such all other agreements signed before it became null and void. After this agreement, they maintained, the Bahawalpur’s area was completely under the rule of the Federation of Pakistan.

The PSP leaders also criticised Federal Minister for Housing Tariq Cheema for demanding restoration of Bahawalpur province. “The ground realities demand that the local inhabitants should become part of Seraiki identity for the solidarity of Pakistan,” they demanded.

DEMO: The shopkeepers who were affected by the government model bazaar blaze on Saturday staged a protest demonstration to demand the restoration of about 200 shops. These shops were destroyed by a fire on Dec 28 last.

The shopkeepers protested that even after the passage of over a month and a half, neither the provincial government nor the district administration has compensated them for their losses.

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on the day of the incident straight away visited the market from the Bahawalpur airport and assured the shopkeepers that the Punjab government would compensate them for the losses they had suffered in the massive blaze. He had directed the district administration to assess the damage.

On the chief minister’s directive, Deputy Commissioner Shozeb Saeed had constituted a five-member committee to probe the incident and assess the traders’ losses. He asked the committee to submit its report within 10 days.

The committee’s recommendations have not been made public so far as a result of which the model bazaar traders are facing difficult time.

SAPLINGS: The teachers and students of the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) on Saturday planted 1,500 saplings on the lawns of university’s engineering college under the Prime Minister’s Tree Plantation Campaign.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2019