PPP lawmaker calls for separate South Punjab province in Senate

ISLAMABAD: As senators from the treasury and opposition traded accusations during Wednesday’s budget debate in the Senate, PPP Senator Rana Mahmoodul Hassan demanded a separate South Punjab province.

“Seven million children are born in Pakistan annually, more than in all of Europe. What are we doing for their employment?” he asked during the budget debate in the House.

The senator noted that when a province becomes too large, bifurcation becomes necessary.

“We will not stay with ‘Takht-i-Lahore’. We want our province. We want separation from Punjab,” he said.

He noted that Multan was historically the capital, and that Bahawalpur supported Pakistan at the time of its creation by paying salaries.

He also demanded an industrial zone, a high court, and a separate share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award for South Punjab, along with agricultural and IT universities.

“Bilawal told us to fight for our province. Why is Seraikistan not being made a province?” he asked.

Separately, an independent senator from Balochistan claimed that independent power producers (IPPs) were behind the reversal of the government’s solar policy.

Senator Abdul Qadir said the government has to pay Rs1.8 trillion in capacity charges. He described IPPs as a “mafia that bulldozes every government” and challenged the government to conduct a forensic audit of IPP agreements.

“Because of electricity, both the poor and the rich are suffering,” he said, adding that IPPs had even succeeded in getting the government’s approved solar policy reversed.

PML-N Senator Abid Sher Ali said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took charge when Pakistan faced the risk of being placed on the FATF grey list and a Sri Lanka-like situation.

He said the premier “saved the sinking boat” and ensured stability and peace. He also criticised the PTI government’s economic team for changing four finance ministers in two and a half years and appointing Nadeem Babar — “who himself was an IPP owner” — as energy adviser.

Ali accused the PTI of making a “deal on Kashmir” and releasing Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan, and added Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had become a “haven for terrorism” under PTI rule.

Another PML-N senator, Agha Shahzeb Durrani, alleged that PTI had started work on Pakistan’s denuclearisation. He added that the PTI had posted “corrupt FBR officers” to key posts, and the current government had removed them.

The senator further said the PML-N government managed the petrol crisis well and had started work on doubling the size of the Karachi-Quetta highway.

In May, a session of the Punjab Assembly erupted into chaos as PPP lawmaker Mumtaz Chang threatened to push for a separate Seraiki province and form an independent government if the grievances of his constituency continued to be ignored.

In February, the in-charge of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee of the MQM-P, Zahid Malik, accused the PPP of adopting double standards on the issue, questioning why it supported new provinces in South Punjab but adopted a different stance on the matter when it came to Sindh and Karachi. ...