The Pakistan government is going ahead with its plan to create the new South Punjab province by bifurcating Punjab and would move a bill in the National Assembly, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced Wednesday.
Punjab is Pakistan’s second largest province by area afterBalochistan. It is also the most populated province and politicallyinfluential. In the run-up to the 2018 general election, the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by Imran Khan had promised to bifurcate Punjabprovince to form South Punjab. The South Punjab province will comprise Multan,Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan districts, Qureshi told reporters in Multan,Punjab.
The Punjab Assembly seats will be reduced to 251 from thecurrent 371 while 120 seats have been proposed for the South Punjab Assembly inthe bill.
Qureshi said that certain constitutional amendments have tobe passed for the formation of the new South Punjab province.
The region will turn into a province when amendments toArticles 59, 51, 1, 106, 158 and 218 of the Constitution are passed.
“The word ‘South Punjab’ in the first paragraph ofArticle 1 will be inducted, and the territories that will be part of southPunjab have been named in the proposed bill,” he was quoted as saying bythe Express Tribune.
“The province will come into being through Article 51,it calls for the separate formation of the assembly. South Punjab will also getrepresentation in the Senate,” he said.
On Monday, PTI lawmaker Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani tabled theConstitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 before Parliament, calling for the creationof a separate South Punjab province, Geo News reported.
The planned South Punjab province will be the sixth provinceof Pakistan after Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and GilgitBaltistan.
Qureshi, a senior leader of the ruling PTI, said that theNational Assembly Speaker will formulate a special committee for consent on thebill.
“We require co-operation of different parties for atwo-thirds majority, said Qureshi.
Qureshi said that he had held a meeting with PakistanPeoples Party’s (PPP) leadership. “I request them to support us as it isin our joint interests and a part of the PTI manifesto.”
“We believe it strengthens a federation, and havedecided to hold political dialogue with like-minded political parties,” hesaid.
Qureshi also requested the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) to support the bill.”I am hopeful they will review theirattitude over it,” he said.