The local politicians, elites and chaudharies want a separate province for their personal gains and glorification. Whether it was late Mr Taj Muhammad Langha who was spearheading saraiki province since late 90s till his death or the makhdooms or other so called nobles of the area... it's always about their personal gains.
If you travel across punjab then its a 50 yr old civilization in Bahawalnagar, DG khan, Layyah, Bhakar and desert areas of Rahim yar khan. Those are the areas that need attention and we need to add in Union council areas of adjoining districts who have similar topography or related health, management or infrastructure related issues. e.g Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahim yar khan District have all got 2 types of land.. desert and agricultural land where water level is going down by literally meters per year thus those areas will be desert too in about 2 or 3 decades. On the other hand Rajanpur and areas alongside sindh river have a shallow water level.
Time passes very slow in vast areas of our country. Its like they have a 30 hrs day on a daily basis. Half of the people here can not name roughly the biggest 10 cities of each district mentioned above, reason is that they are neither on main NHA roads nor alongside main railway line. It's a jungle out there. The elites literally rule and have an unrelenting grip/control over the life and livelihood of the people in those districts and now they want political leverage coupled with easy government money.
The difference between leaders of south punjab and interior sindh and Balochistan, which are other under previlaged areas of the country, is not that the elected representatives want welfare in their localities. It's them bring afraid of the rapidly growing disagreement and dissent by the educated youth out there. Based upon the socioeconomic indicators the need to carve out a province in central south to south eastern sindh is more acute than in south punjab. Same way vast area from awaran district in Balochistan upwards right up to Jacobabad and Jaffarabad are still living in 1980s if not in 1960s.
Nobody is against the division of punjab but I am totally against the division based upon
- what elected members say as more than a fair share of their votes were casted for a good meal or a thousand rupee. That's like a law down there. They speak for themselves only.
- population. what will you do in a few decades when population again changes... will we redemarcate provincial boundaries or carve out a new one
- ethnicity or language/dialect. Potohari, seraiki, urdu, Hindko, Balti and so on and so forth are other languages with people spread over sizable area. we cant make a province for all.
Need of the hour is to sit down and use this option for a south punjab province into making it a success both for the governance of the country and for the uplift of the people from an education, health and economic point of view. Otherwise there will never be another division in Pakistan and the provincial nationalists and waderas in sindh (jiye sindh etc) and sardars of Balochistan would never let their people enter the 21st century.
