The PML-N is displeased over the constitution of a parliamentary commission by the National Assembly Speaker on the division of Punjab to form two new provinces. It has been accusing the PPP of having adopted a selective approach. Adding his voice on Friday to various Nawaz League leaders' statements on the subject, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that the federal government has not taken the Punjab government into confidence over the division of Punjab.
He took exception to the commission's terms of reference that focus on Punjab to aver that there is no justification for holding a meeting on the division of Punjab alone, and that the provincial leadership had strong reservations over the panel set up by the federal government. What has annoyed the Nawaz League most is the Speaker's decision to include in the commission the PPP's coalition partners - the PML-Q, the MQM and the ANP - two of which, namely the MQM and the ANP, have no presence in the Punjab Assembly.
The PML-N seems to be worried that by leading the move in the Parliament, the PPP would claim all the credit for meeting the popular demand in southern Punjab to encash it for votes at the time of the upcoming elections. It continues to insist that a national commission, rather than a parliamentary commission, should first devise a formula on the basis of which new provinces could be carved out, so that the same applies to other provinces as well. The fact of the matter is that at present, the Constitution has no provision for the creation of new provinces. It makes perfect sense, therefore, for the PPP to opt for a parliamentary commission, representing all parliamentary parties to arrive at an agreement on a constitutional amendment to form the Janoobi Punjab and Bahawalpur provinces as per the Punjab Assembly resolution.
There are a number of related issues, too, that need to be sorted out and the guiding principles laid down for any future divisions in other provinces. So far as resource distribution is concerned, the new NFC Award formula has pretty much settled that question. But there are other matters such as allocation/readjustment of the National Assembly and Senate seats, as well as the size of the new provincial assemblies, and administrative and legal questions that have to be addressed. The most sensitive subject pertains to the demarcation of boundaries. There, the PML-N has a point when it says it should have 50 percent representation in the parliamentary commission that is to decide the division of Punjab, where it is the single largest party in the provincial assembly. That would resolve a lot of unnecessary problems. The same course should be incorporated in the proposed constitutional amendment for the creation of new provinces in the future. It hardly needs saying that the issue is extremely emotive and hence should not be handled in a hurried and unsystematic manner. In any case, in order to make the required constitutional amendment, the PPP will have to bring the PML-N on board. Meanwhile, the two parties should avoid using the subject for point-scoring to make electoral gains.
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