DERA GHAZI KHAN: Seraiki nationalists, intelligentsia, and PML-N and PPP leaders called the recent decision to appoint additional chief secretary (ACS) and additional inspector general (AIG) in two different cities of south Punjab a joke and a non-serious idea.

Talking to Dawn, PML-N Punjab General Secretary Awais Leghari called it a non-serious move to ward off pressure mounted by his party as well as the public for the establishment of south Punjab province.

He said it was a joke to appoint junior-level officers in two cities instead of establishment of a secretariat in one city or creating a province out of it.

He maintained that those who could not obtain a consensus on the appointment of junior-level officers could not agree to the establishment of a secretariat and a province with one capital.

He further said that if the government was serious then there was no need to table a new bill for an amendment to the law for the establishment of a province, as the PML-N had already tabled one.

The Seraiki Lok Sanjh termed the government’s move symbolic to gain political mileage. Mushtaq Gadi said that without a financial accord under the Constitution and then creation of a finance commission that would distribute resources for the National Finance Commission Award on the basis of population, area and deprivation, such appointments only had symbolic value.

Former Punjab chief minister Dost Muhammad Khan Khosa of the PPP said that the PTI government had no hurdle in the way of establishment of the south Punjab province as all political parties would support it on the relevant constitutional amendment. But, he said, the PTI was not serious with or committed to the issue. He termed the appointments of two officials in two cities of south Punjab instead of one a conspiracy to create differences between the people of the region.

Seraiki intellectual Ibrahim Baig said that no political government had the authority to create a province because politicians were not the centre of power, which lied with the establishment, but they did not want to exercise their authority right now. All other political units were functioning on the basis of culture, so why not Seraiki province, he asked. He alleged that the power corridors were not in favour of a Seraiki province.

Pakistan Seraiki Party demanded the establishment of a secretariat in Multan as the city was accessable to the whole Seraiki region.

Zahoor Ahmed Dhareja of Seraikistan Qaumi Council agreed that the capital of the Seraiki province should be Multan.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2020