Governor Punjab Sardar Latif Khosa’s emphatic assurance that the new province of South Punjab will be formed come what may might win the PPP temporary support in the Bahawalpur region, where Seraiki province is often used as a political football. The flip side of the hoax is ominous; to any sensible and patriotic Pakistani, there is hardly any sense in dallying with shenanigans that can further lead to disunity. Promoting regionalism and that too in a twisted form will weaken the federation and divide the society against itself. Already with foreign forces on the lookout to fan separatist tendencies, a new province in the southern Punjab would inevitably serve to provoke other people into going up in arms demanding similar status for their areas. And soon the hydra-headed monster of provincialism will have the country in its grip.
What is necessary is to address the causes that breed poverty and a sense of margilanisation. Backward areas should get a lot more than what they are being given at the moment as well as the people empowered through education, employment and all other services that the state is meant to provide. The trend of developing certain cities lavishly while neglecting others must also end because that is what mainly forces the people to think that they are being deliberately abandoned. The PPP setup could have done this but sadly it has not and worse still is relying on pulling farcical stunts.