Creation of Bahawalpur-Junoobi Punjab province Senate passes: ''The Constitution (24th Amendment) Bill''

The Senate on Wednesday passed ''The Constitution (24th Amendment) Bill, 2013'' with a two-third majority. The bill is designed to create the new province of Bahawalpur-Junoobi Punjab out of the Punjab province. The bill was moved by federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek, on which 70 senators belonging to PPP, ANP, MQM, PML-Q voted in favour while there was no senator to oppose it.
Amendments moved by Mohsin Leghari, an impendent lawmaker from Punjab, were not considered while Haji Adeel and Sardar Ali also moved some amendments, but they omitted all amendments when the final voting on the bill started. The bill will now be referred to the National Assembly for approval. After getting through the lower house, the amendment bill will be put before Punjab Assembly.
The real battle will be fought on the floor of the Punjab Assembly where Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is in majority, which already made it clear to the PPP that it will strike it down without any consideration. Unlike its opposition to the government''s bill for the creation of Bahawalpur Junoobi-Punjab province, the PML-N offered soft resistance by staging a walkout out.
However, before staging a walkout, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, leader of the opposition in Senate, said that his party had rejected the formation of the commission to carve out new provinces of Punjab as it completely contradicted the ground realities. "We did not accept the formation of commission as the government neither consulted the leader of opposition in Senate nor leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan...we''ve serious reservations over the scope and terms of reference of the commission," he maintained. He said that an official working at the presidency was made chairman of the commission, adding that various people were chosen on it on "personal considerations".
"We''ve also moved a privilege motion against the formation of the commission which is pending before the National assembly...it is nothing more than an election stunt," he added. He warned that any new province at a time when rumours were rife about an international conspiracy to disintegrate Pakistan into 11 units, would be the precursor towards meeting the nefarious designs of enemies.
Senator Hasil Bizanjo, a senator from Balochistan, said that PML-N was equally involved in what PPP was going to do in the name of creating new provinces, adding as both parties knew it well that no new province would be added to the map of Pakistan. "You are lying to the people of Southern Punjab. Why don''t you go for demarcation of all provinces before carving out new provinces. Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur are historically not part of Punjab. We will not accept this unless you take all provinces into confidence," he maintained. Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), who opposed the bill, said that with only 10 days left before the dissolution of assemblies, it was futile to bring in an amendment altering the Constitution as well the country''s federal structure.
Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah of PML-N said that his party would not allow the PPP to cut provinces like a ''rat'', adding that adopting an amendment in such a haste tantamount to abrogating the Constitution. Senator Mushaid Hussain Sayed of PML-Q, whose party voted in favour of the bill, however, called for rising above petty political differences, adding that there was a need to make it clear whether such a move would affect the federation in a negative or positive manner. Senator Farhatullah Babar, who is the chairman of the commission on the formation of new provinces, said that PPP had always been in the forefront to end the sense of deprivation among people of Southern Punjab.
"It was the PPP, which elected a prime minister from Southern Punjab for the first time. When he [Gilani] was shown the door by those not happy seeing a Southern Punjabi as prime minister, the party was all set to pick another man from the Seraiki region as premier, but he also fell prey to the ephedrine conspiracy," he added. He went on to say that PPP had made a conscious political effort, which would benefit the entire region, adding that if it was a political stunt, why the Punjab Assembly had passed two resolutions in this regard. "This is an indictment of the Punjab Assembly," he added.