BAHAWALPUR, April 24: Campaigners for Bahawalpur province on Sunday observed Martyrs' Day in the memory of those who laid down their lives during the movement for restoration of the province.
Two activists namely Hafiz Muhammad Shafiq and Muhammad Azeem Dadpotra were killed in police fire on a public rally on April 24, 1970 outside Farid Gate here. In this connection, the movement leaders on Sunday organised a rally and a public meeting at Farid Gate to highlight their demand for the separate province.Movement's core committee secretary-general and Punjab JI amir, Dr. Syed Waseem Akhtar, ex-federal minister Syed Tasneem Nawaz Gardezi, Punjab Assembly former deputy speaker Sahibzada Usman Abbasi and PML-Q's ex-parliamentarian Syed Tabish Alwari were the main speakers.
Core committee chairman and Punjab PML-F president, MPA Makhdum Syed Ahmed Mehmood, could not attend the rally owing to his visit to the UK.
The speakers condemned the late president Yahya Khan for usurping the legal and constitutional right of the local population to a separate province while announcing the dissolution of One-Unit and creating new provinces including Balochistan instead of the restoration of Bahawalpur province in 1970.
They claimed that Bahawalpur enjoyed the status of a province before the formation of One Unit in 1950's. They pledged to continue struggle for their objective.
The speakers said they neither opposed the setting up of a Seraiki or South Punjab province but wanted that Bahawalpur be given its status.
Usman Abbasi announced formation of a human chain from Kot Sabzal (Rahim Yar Khan) to Mandi Sadiq Ganj in Bahawalnagar district to prove (symbolically) that the people of three districts of the division were united on this just and legal demand.
They criticised both the federal and Punjab governments for ignoring the constitutional right of the people of this region.
