ISLAMABAD - After failing to land on same page, the Parliamentary Commission on formation of new provinces in Punjab adjourned the meeting of the commission till next week to have input from more technical experts on this ticklish issue.
Sources aware of the deliberations of the commission’s meeting informed TheNation that technical experts who attended the meeting on the special request of the commission were having divergent viewpoint even on basic issues and the meeting ended without any result as the experts were sticking to their point of view on technical matters.
On Tuesday the commission’s meeting held under the chair of Senator Farhatullah Babar but the members and the experts in attendance differed even on basic issues as some of them were in support of creating two more provinces while others wanted to see only Seraiki province to end the deprivation of the people living in southern Punjab.
Sources said that the members were also not clear on the matter that what to do with the Seraiki speaking people inhabiting parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan as for inclusion of Dera Ismail Khan, parts of Bannu and some areas of Balochistan adjoining parts of southern Punjab.
Similarly the dispute over the precincts of the proposed Seraiki province within Punjab were also under dispute as the people of southern Punjab wanted to include Sahiwal, Mianwali, Khushab and even Sargodha in the new Seraiki province whereas majority of people living in these areas were not in favour of joining it.
Talking to media persons after the meeting Chairman of the Commission Senator Farhatullah Babar said that all the members of the commission were putting in their best and the commission would come up with unanimously approved proposal for carving out new province in Punjab.
Babar said that before writing the report on new province the commission would consult regional experts including Taj Muhammad Langa, Ashiq Buzdar, Malik Khair Muhammad and Rifat Rehmani.
He further said that the meeting with regional experts would be held on Dec. 24 and some other experts including former Federal Minister for Information Muhammad Ali Durrani, Mirza Masroor Ahmad Baig, Iqbal Khan, Ghazanfar Mehdi and Ashiq Gulzar would likely appear before the commission to give their point of view to the commission.
Talking to media ANP Senator Haji Adeel said that his party would only favour Seraiki province in the Punjab while they would not support any other option.