PML-F seeks debate on 'Bahawalpur province'

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly Jahangir Khan Tareen has said that there should be an open debate on the issue of Bahawalpur province. While responding a query in a press conference here on Monday, Tareen said that the government should start mega development schemes in the region, adding, But if our demand is not met, the things may go to the streets and the demand for a separate province can catch impetus. He asked the federal government to establish Development Equalisation Fund with the allocation of Rs 100 billion for the uplift of southern Punjab and rural Sindh so that the sense of deprivation among the people of the areas could be addressed timely. If the government is unable to spend the said amount in one year due to economic constraints, a two to three year development plan for the region could be chalked out to redress the problems of dwellers of the underdeveloped region, he said after attending partys parliamentary party meeting at Kingri House. Tareen said that his party was aware of the governments difficulties and also knew the challenge of terrorism, so it had supported the federal budget 2009-10. He said that there were many good schemes in new budget but he was sceptical about their implementation. The previous regimes had been forming such policies but the real issue is their implementation, he said. Terming agriculture the backbone of the countrys economy, Tareen said that governments decision of establishing research and development centres for wheat and cotton was commendable. There is not even a single research centre for cotton in rural Sindh, he said and urged the government to set up a cotton research centre there. Dairy sector development schemes in the budget 2009-10 are good, he said and added that the there was need of establishing more vocational training centres in Southern Punjab and rural Sindh. Tareen said that in Ghotki, the adjoining district of Rahimyar Khan, there were many industries but the city had no vocational training centre. He said that due to absence of vocational training centres in the area, the manpower in the existing industrial set-up was being hired from other regions of the country while the youth of the vicinity was still unemployed. He said that most of the vocational training centres were situated in central Punjab. He said that electricity theft be checked through good governance as it was putting extra burden on the feeble shoulders of poor masses.