KARACHI, Aug 9: The All Pakistan Muslim League was formed on Friday, being termed as the true successor of the All India Muslim League.

Announcing the revival of the APML at a press conference, Mirza Jawad Baig, a progeny of AIML founder-secretary Nawab Moosa Khan, said that since Pakistan had come into being under the banner of the AIML, the APML would pick up the final task of providing the country with national unity, deep-rooted democracy, sustained stability, politically enviable economic growth and sincere leadership.

He proposed and pledged to strive for the establishment of 22 smaller but stable and viable provinces/states in substitution of the present “very large, unproportionate and unbalanced provinces, along with federal territory of Islamabad.

Mr Baig said that such a reorganisation would entail stability in the overall system, resulting in the elimination of all feelings of neglect, mistrust and deprivation. Besides, it would also ensure the establishment of true and lasting democracy.

“The evil of corruption and lawlessness would be minimised and injustice eliminated. Due to enhanced economic activities, employment opportunities would multiply manifolds. Ultimately a lasting era of confidence, healthy competition, progress and prosperity among all the people would fruitfully emerge”, he added.

According to the proposal the 22 provinces will be: Makran, Lasbela, Kalat, Sibi, Quetta, Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan, Multan, Lahore, Gujranwal, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, D.I.Khan, Peshawar, Hazara, Malakand, and Northren Areas. (FATA areas will be merged with the adjoining provinces of Malakand, Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan).

(FATA areas will be merged with the adjoining provinces of Malakand, Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan).

Jawad baig said that even after 55 years of our independence, we had bitterly failed to unite ourselves into one single Pakistani nation.

He said: “Instead of being proud to be Pakistanis, we are still seeking unsustainable protection under racial, provincial, linguistic and tribal prejudices. This attitude has led to power being amassed into individual hands at the centre, resulting in dictatorship in politics, may it be of military, bureaucratic or the so-called elected representative.”

He said that the original APML was cremated during the first military dictatorship of Ayub Khan. It was then buried deep down by the socalled politicians who had neither any political background, training and wisdom, nor had they ever played any part in the Pakistan Movement. They created Muslim Leagues under their personal name-labels and created civilian dictatorships.

Mr Baig said that the central office of the AIML was first established at his grandfather’s Kothi, “Musharraf Manzil” at Aligarh, and he himself was elected to the AIML council. His mother, Rahil Begum Sherwani, was the founder of the AIWML which was inaugurated by the Quaid-i-Azam at Aligarh in 1938.