What stops it from coming into being?

The demand for the creation of 'south Punjab' province is gaining some traction. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over a meeting where it was decided to table a constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly next month. Since its passage requires a two-thirds majority vote, the PM asked his party leaders to get in touch with the two main opposition parties in parliament, the PML-N and PPP, to elicit their support for the bill. That won't be easy although, on principle, both parties favour the idea. In fact, in 2012 when the PML-N ruled Punjab, a resolution moved by the PPP for the formation of 'south Punjab' province was unanimously passed by the provincial assembly. Later, the party also managed to have the Senate approve a constitutional bill on the issue. But that is where it remained stuck for lack of support in the lower house from the other major party, the PML-N.

Still, some competing interests within that region and outside it, of political parties, are creating hurdles in the realisation of that popular demand. The PML-N has been calling for carving out a third province out of Punjab comprising the erstwhile princely state of Bahawalpur. So is the stance of the government ally, the PML-Q. There are some dissenting voices inside the PTI too. That seems to suit the government. For, at this point in time, it can ill-afford any disruption in Punjab where its numerical strength is dependent on legislators from the southern region. And the Nawaz League knows that even if it votes for the amendment bill, the government will delay implementation using the argument that it needs time to make necessary infrastructure and financial arrangements to have the new province up and running. On its part, the ruling party has elected to fast track its alternative plan of setting up a new secretariat in southern Punjab to mitigate some of the grievances of that region's people.

PTI Vice President and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told journalists that the secretariat would start functioning next month. And that 35 percent of the Punjab budget would be transferred to the proposed province. The meeting, however, could not arrive at a consensus as to where the new province's capital should be located. In an obvious attempt to accommodate the concerns of the two contending sides, it was announced that an additional chief secretary and an additional inspector general of police would be appointed for southern Punjab, one of them would sit in Multan and the other in Bahawalpur. The Prime Minister is reported to have said that at first the spadework should be done and a bill introduced in Parliament, then it would be decided where the provincial secretariat is to be established. As for the long-standing demand for 'south Punjab' province, it is to remain unmet, at least in the immediate future. The government can be expected to claim it did all it could, and plausibly blame the other political parties for non-cooperation.