islamabad
The people of Seraiki area, also known as southernPunjab, gave a big thrashing to Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPP-P) which was ostensibly calling for a separate province for them and voted Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to power.
Unlike 2008, the PPP-P and Bahawalpur National Awami Party (BNAP) were calling for Seraiki orSouthern Punjabbut the PPP-P only could win a single national assembly seat in polls while the BNAP even could not even do so.
The PPP-P, which has big share in 2008, could not secure even satisfactory results against the all assumptions of pundits as it had once 23 seats out of 43. Makhdoom Ahmed Mustafa who was contesting from NA-195 could able to get one seat from the emblem of arrow.
PakistanTehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI), which for the first time in history marking its presence in theSouthern Punjabcould able to secure comparatively more seats than PPP.
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) surprised the political pundits and bagged 28 national assemblies seats as earlier it had not more than five in this area.
The PML (Zia) also secured one seat from the area.
It would not be out of place to mention here that though strongly criticised PPP-P was the party that proposed province ‘Bhawalpur Janobi Punjab’ (BJP) for the deprived people of the area. This move was also rejected due to plethora of reasons, as reportedly five districts included in proposed BJP do not have Seraiki speaking people in majority. Moreover, these districts are nearer toLahoreand centralPunjab.
–javaid-ur-rahman
