LAHORE: Before the creation of new province(s) in the south of Punjab, a number of issues – such as the number of provinces, their names, demarcation of boundaries, financial viability and water sharing etc – need to be resolved, states a policy brief, titled ‘South Punjab: why still a dream?’
Launched here on Friday by the Centre for Governance and Policy at the IT University, the brief covers history, current status and future issues concerning creation of one or more provinces in the south of Punjab.
It points out that unless proper legislation is introduced and passed by the National Assembly, Senate and Punjab Assembly, new province(s) will always remain a dream.
Exploring roots of the movement for new provinces, the brief says the inception of Seraiki language movement in Pakistan, beginning with the standardisation of the language in the 1960s and 1970s, gave the first hint of the demand.
“Initially, Seraiki was simply a dialect of Landha (western) Punjabi, but following the work of several activists, it was separated from Punjabi, and by 1981 was recognised as a separate language. Many Seraiki journals, and especially the Jashn-i-Farid, played a major part in making Seraiki a recognisable and different language.”
The Seraiki province movement, in fact, originated as a demand for the restoration of the Bahawalpur State in 1970 after the dissolution of the One Unit. Bahawalpur State, which had got the status of a province in 1952, was merged with West Pakistan in 1955, and should have been restored in 1970 with the break-up of the One Unit, but it was instead merged with the Punjab province.
Thereafter, the brief further states, that a movement started for its restoration, but met with resistance and, after the separation of East Pakistan in 1971, fizzled out. Since a Seraiki literary movement was already afoot, the Bahawalpur province movement then morphed into one for a Seraiki province, arguing that the whole of the Seraiki belt should to be under one jurisdiction.
After 1970, it became political, and political parties owned the issue, but did little for tangible change. While major political parties paid lip service to the cause, Seraiki parties were never popular enough to win any seats.
A gap in development spending in the 1980s onwards gave further impetus to the movement, which then transformed from a literary and cultural movement to one about underdevelopment, unequal distribution of resources and jobs.
Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020
