GUJRAT: No significant progress has been made with regard to upgrading Wazirabad to the status of a district causing concern among the stakeholders.

The Gujranwala district administration had submitted a proposal in this regard to the Board of Revenue (BoR) last month.

However, well-placed sources in the divisional administration say the chances of bifurcation of Wazirabad tehsil by carving out a new sub-division of Ali Pur Chatha were bright. They say the government may create some new tehsils in the region as the plan to create some new districts has reportedly been deferred due to some administrative and political hitches.

The administrations of Gujranwala and Gujrat had proposed the creation of new tehsils, such as Ali Pur Chatha and two towns of Gujrat -- Jalalpur Jattan and Kunjah.

As per the proposal, Gakhar Mandi should remain the part of Wazirabad tehsil, whereas the proposed Ali Pur Chatha tehsil may comprise more area as compared to Wazirabad tehsil.

The sources says the chances of upgrade of Wazirabad as a new district prior to the next general elections are bleak.

A BoR official told Dawn that Chief Minister Parvez Elahi’s coalition government in Punjab had initially desired to create some new districts and tehsils on administrative grounds according to which Lahore had to be divided into four districts and Wazirabad too had to be given status of a district.

On the BoR’s direction the Gujranwala divisional and district administrations had in August submitted a detailed proposal as per which Daska tehsil of Sialkot could be made a part of proposed Wazirabad district by creating Ali Pur Chatha tehsil. The new district was to comprise Wazirabad, Daska and Ali Pur Chatha tehsils as per the proposals.

However, the official sources in Gujranwala say that there is a silence in the BoR on the matter, indicating a change of heart within the concerned authorities, and the idea of inclusion of Daska into the proposed Wazirabad district may also not be entertained.

It is learnt that after a stiff resistance was offered by the Sialkot’s political figures, as well as the civil society, the provincial government has reportedly deferred the proposal to separate Daska tehsil from Sialkot.

A senior administrative official says on condition of anonymity that creating a new district at the time when general elections were not far away, may become difficult as doing so may disturb the existing limits of the electoral constituencies of the provincial and national assemblies.

He says changing the limits of a tehsil within the same district could not disturb the constituencies limits, however creation of a new district requires hectic work for the new delimitation and change in the number of national and provincial assemblies seats which may not be allowed by the Election Commission of Pakistan at this stage.

Meanwhile, Adviser to Prime Minister on Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan Affairs Qamar Zaman Kaira has written a letter to Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Governor Baleeghur Rehman, seeking tehsil status for Dinga town of Kharian, instead of Kunjah, keeping in view the regional situation and the location if the town.Ahmed Chatha, a local PTI leader and former PTI ticket holder from the Wazirabad National Assembly seat, met party chairman Imran Khan recently and supported the idea of making Wazirabad a district. However, sources said that at the same time he opposed the proposal of including his district into the Gujrat division and emphasized on retaining it in Gujranwala division.An administrative official said that Mr Chatha’s opposition could the reason for a go-slow on Wazirabad’s inclusion into Gujrat division.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2022