DERA GHAZI KHAN: A well-attended procession reminded the ruling PTI of its electoral promise to establish a Seraiki province in its first 100 days of the government in Layyah’s Kot Sultan town on Monday.

The rally was organised by the Seraiki Sooba Saang Committee in Kot Sultan, 20km from Layyah city, in which a large number of people -- women, students, intellectuals, journalists and local political activists -- were present.

The rally was supported by the Seraiki Lok Saanjh, Seraiki Students Council, Seraiki Wasaib Movement, Bazam-i-Farid, Seraiki Action Committee, Sindhu Bachai Tarla and Seraiki Tareemat Saanjh.

Safdar Klasra, organiser and one of the founding members of the Seraiki Sooba Sang Committee, said the issue of the Seraiki province had been hovering for many years now.

“Initially, the PPP passed a bill in 2013 in the upper house of parliament to carve out a Seraiki province. Not Just that, the PPP tabled another bill in the Senate in May 2019 in order to accelerate the efforts to make the province but it remained a fruitless exercise as the PTI instead came up with a south Punjab secretariat, the future of which remains uncertain,” said Klasra.

Fazal Rab Lund, rights activist and a member of Seraiki Lok Sanjh, said in his speech the Seraiki people and their movement could not be tamed anymore by the false promises of the province.

Praising the PPP, generally, and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, specifically, for the sooba cause, he said if the PTI wished to survive and sustain its vote bank in wasaib, it should work to fulfill the promise.

The Seraikis have been woken up and they won’t fall to PTI’s empty slogans anymore, said Lund.

Local woman leader Amna Bibi spoke against the illegal occupation of more than 1,500 acres of the pond area adjacent to the Taunsa barrage.

She alleged that upon protesting against land grabbers and illegal occupants, they had been harassed and tortured by land grabbers with the connivance of the district administration and the irrigation department.

Lawyer Javed Sheikh said that the formation of the Seraiki province warranted a balanced federation, equal rights and representation for all ethnicities in Pakistan.

“The Seraiki Sooba will serve as a corrective measure to the past injustices inflicted upon Seraikis,” said Sheikh.

The participants demanded the government put an end to the massive land allotments in Rohi and Thal regions. Deserts may look barren to those making decisions for us in Lahore and Islamabad but they were mistaken because these deserts were the primary source of our livelihood and if they were taken from us we, our livestock would suffer, added a young student from Thal.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2021