ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: A 15-member committee of Pakistan Muslim League-N decided at its preliminary meeting held on Tuesday to finalise its proposals on the demand for new provinces after holding continuous meetings in the coming weeks and discussions in the party’s parliamentary group.

According to sources, the committee will again meet on Wednesday when its members from Sindh, including Ghaus Ali Shah and Mamnoon Hussain, who could not make it to the federal capital on Tuesday, will join the deliberations.

Former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan said the members held a candid discussion on various aspects of the demand with a view to preparing realistic proposals on the basis of emerging realities.

He said issues of governance were discussed with reference to the strong bureaucratic system in the past when the writ of the government was more effectively in place even in larger administrative units.

Former party secretary general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said the committee’s chairman Raja Zafarul Haq solicited the opinion of each member on the demands surfacing for new provinces in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The committee specially discussed the demands for Hazara, Bahawalpur and southern Punjab provinces.

It maintained that there was no harm in division of provinces on administrative grounds but it would be harmful if it was done on linguistic or ethnic grounds.