The province debate

The debate regarding the creation of the South Punjab province is not new. There is even a resolution of the Punjab Assembly regarding it. The question today is not only the creation of a South Punjab province but also paying heed to the remote voices that we had been hearing from other areas of the country with demands similar to the one from the south of Punjab. Given the diversity of these voices, a national debate is of utmost importance to develop a national consensus to avoid the future emergence of centrifugal forces. Without this national consensus, one is afraid that the centrifugal forces may create unwarranted fissures in the body of our federation. How do we move forward? First, since at present there are two bills before the National Assembly– one recently tabled by the PTI and another tabled by the PML-N proposing also the Bahawalpur province – it is important to combine the two Bills into one.It must be kept in mind that a decision like this should not become a victim of the political yearnings of a few land lords of the area. It must be based on the socio-economic needs of the people of the area. Yes, the various services of the state must be within the easy reach of the people of a geographical territory, justice and administrative systems included. But a question that comes to mind is: Is the creation of a new province the only plausible solution? In my view, it would be far more plausible to create new administrative divisions headed by sub-governors. By adopting this approach, we can easily satisfy the voices emerging from other areas as well, Second, and more important, it would be easy to implement this and it will also be less fracturing than the creation of a single province in the south of Punjab. It might be appropriate to start a debate on whether to have an independent single province versus many administrative divisions which can be more accountable in providing efficient services closer to where the people live.Dr Zafar I QureshiLahore

from The News International - Newspost http://bit.ly/2YDSY6Z