PM stabbing PPP in the back: Durrani

OUR STAFF REPORTER BAHAWALPUR - Former information minister Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani is stabbing in the back of the PPP by spreading the ethnic hatred in the name of the creation of Saraiki province. He said that Waderas or feudal lords want to create Waderistan (a land of feudal lords) in the name of Saraiki province on ethnic basis. Addressing the Haroonabad and Fort Abbas Bar Associations, he urged the PPP government to refrain from forming the province. The creation of a province on the basis of hatred was not announce on August 14 and nor will it be announced in the future. The feudal lords of Southern Punjab have no love for the people of Bahawalpur but they are hankering after 6.4 million acres of Cholistan land. The practical struggle for the restoration of Bahawalpur province will be launched in September under the leadership of Amir of Bahawalpur Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, he said. The Bahawalpur province would not be restored in any assembly but on the roads and streets of Bahawalpur. He said that Bahawalpur was heartland of Pakistan and nobody would be allowed to trade ethnic hatred or to unleash bloodshed. The former information minister expressed the hope that not only the Bahawalpur province would be restored but the accords inked by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi would also be implemented. He said the movement for the restoration of the Bahawalpur province enjoys the support of political parties and intellectuals of the Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan was created by a lawyer and today I am seeing the lawyers community as the frontline contingent in the movement, he said. On the occasion, Haroonabad Bar Association President Asghar Ali Venice and General Secretary Sardar Ilyas Baloch lauded the services and efforts of Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani for the restoration of the province and on behalf of the Bar Association announced full support to the movement for the restoration of the Bahawalpur province. Addressing the Fort Abbas Bar Association, the Senator said that no new province could be created in Pakistan until the Bahawalpur province was restored. He asked the lawyers to lead the movement for the restoration of the Bahawalpur province. He said that every procession to be taken out would be led by lawyers. Durrani said, Bahawalpur deserves Rs85 billion share in the current budget of the Punjab but the province has been given a paltry amount of Rs15 billion. Only a meagre amount of Rs2.5 billion has been allocated for the development while the rest of the amount is for salaries. Thus, Bahawalpur has been robbed of Rs70 billion. The people of Bahawalpur will not rest until the reclamation of their identity. Later, Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani condoled with former MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Arshad the death of his mother. Earlier, Fort Abbas Bar Association President Hafiz Ijlal Haider announced to fully participate in the movement. Makhdoom Nasir Bukhari, Syed Mahmood Nawaz Gardezi, Seth Shamsur Rehman, Major (r) Amir Islam, Qari Monis Baloch, Maulana Muhammad Qasim Khokhar, Muhammad Tauqir, Riaz Ahmed Baloch and Waheed Khan Lashari were also present.

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