The storm of the judicial crisis had hardly settled down when the issues of constitutional crisis [abolition of the controversial 17 Amendment] and division of the Punjab on ethnic, cultural and linguistic grounds raised their ugly heads threatening a fragile parliament.
The latter is a carefully crafted issue potent enough to throw the federation into limitless chaos and commotion if not handled with kid’s gloves. Once this delicate balance is disrupted, the sky would be the limit for devastation.
The other day BBC reported that some politicians from PML-Q and PPP want more provinces inside Punjab on ethnic, linguistic and cultural grounds. It’s no new idea, as the division of the four provinces had also been considered by Musharraf regime in 2006 when it was decided to divide the provinces into smaller entities on ethnic, cultural and linguistic lines [Pak Tribune].
However, the idea was abandoned probably after the regime looked into its political repercussions. But, intriguingly, it has reared its ugly head again at a time when President Asif Ali Zardari is under immense pressure to undo the 17th Amendment with a view to empowering parliament.
It is also amazing that the idea came out of the closet when PML-N leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has got a clean chit from the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Helicopter Reference [Zafar Ali Shah case]. His exoneration in the Plane Hijacking case also looks imminent.
The repeated clean chits for the Sharif brothers awarded by the judiciary has set alarm bells ringing in the PPP camp whose top leadership’s politics thrives under the umbrella of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
Intriguingly, majority of the people advocating the division of Punjab are those who remained in power in the previous government but could not do it. Among them is the former information minister in the Musharraf regime Muhammad Ali Durrani, who has wowed to launch a movement if the government did not create at least 16 provinces including the provinces of Bahawalpur and Multan.
In other words, he is suggesting at least two types of provinces in the Punjab – one based on language and culture and the other based on culture only. During his press conference at the National Press Club, Islamabad, he reminded the government that it was Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who had pledged to give Bahawalpur the status of a province though he didn’t mention why the founder of Pakistan didn’t do it.
If the Quaid could not do it for lack of time, why Premier Liaquat Ali Khan did not do it? Above all, if it was possible through a presidential ordinance, what kept the previous totalitarian government from doing it? During a session of the Punjab Assembly, PPP MPAs like Sardar Athar Gorchani and Nazim Hussain Shah from Rajanpur and Multan respectively raised a point of order for creation of a Seraiki province stating that they were not Punjabis and that apart from Punjabis many other nationalities like Baluch, Seraikis and Pathans were living in the Punjab. Their statement, “Please, don’t call us Punjabis because it intensifies our deprivation and destitution” shows their cause based on racial and fascist prejudice.
However, PML-N MPA Waris Kalloo opposed the move terming it a conspiracy against the integrity of the country like the one unleashed in 1971 leading to the creation of Bangladesh. It is worth-mentioning here that Javed Hashmi is the only MP from PML-N who endorses the division of the Punjab but he does not talk of a Seraiki province. Instead, he talks of a province consisting of southern region of the Punjab. His statement is based on the current political scenario where the PML-N has majority seats from the central Punjab, parts of northern Punjab and few from southern Punjab.
I think his statement is a reaction to most PPP and PML-Q politicians who feel that despite their majority in southern Punjab they are not able to form a government in the south because of a united Punjab. Southern Punjab has a tribal, feudal and Sufi clerical background where feudals, clerics and tribal heads have created a system that has little to do with democracy.
The problem with the politicians there, whether they belong to PMLN-Q or PPP, is their lack of ability to attain full executive powers to unfold their ultimate feudal prerogative and rule their feudal dynasties with maximum authority. Only one thing can give them full power and that is the division of Punjab on ethnic lines to form their own government and to rule their people.
Basically, Javed Hashmi, Sardar Gorchani, Nazim Shah, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Premier Gilani all represent a feudal society belonging to southern Punjab. One can’t suspect their patriotism but at the same time one can’t rule out their obsession with maintaining the source of their power and the hub of their strength that is culture, which deifies its feudals, thus the chances of defeat or political setback are minimal or non-existent.
Seeing their political carrier waning, people like Muhammad Ali Durrani have resorted to more “paying and more capitalizing” regional and ethnic politics, which provides more room for political gain and chance of coercion than any other form of politics.
Regional politics is no new thing to the Punjab, and Taj Muhammad Langah, the chief of Seraiki National Party, has been pursuing this politics for years now. According to news reports, the objective of this party has been carefully designed by the Indian RAW to weaken the ideology of Pakistan. This kind of Indian tactics are not new for it was involved in supporting the famous Pukhtunistan movement in the 70s and is presently arming, financing and training the Balochistan Liberation Army (BRA).
Interestingly, while talking and acting against the existence of Pakistan, these politicians-cum-Indian pawns enjoy full powers and other facilities within the framework of Pakistan. They can be seen in the assemblies, in the cabinet and elsewhere in the corridors of powers. The clear examples are ANP, MQM, BNP, JSQM and many others. It is so because these parties have no principle, no ethics and no morality.
The division of Punjab is a conspiracy aimed at dividing the nation into a multitude of tiny nationalities and subgroups. Also, the architects of this conspiracy have a wonderful idea i.e. to weaken the political hold of national parties like the PPP and PML-N having “federational” influence. As a consequence, these mainstream parties would lack their national influence because of many small parties having ethnic, linguistic, regional and racial inclinations and influences.
There is no doubting the fact that the military regimes ruled Pakistan through unconstitutional, illegal and illegitimate means of executive conduct, and for this purpose they fomented ethnic, linguistic and regional divides among the Pakistanis for continuity of their dictatorial regimes.
This situation did nothing but forged ethnic and chauvinistic hatred on a permanent basis against the ideology on which rests the very edifice of Pakistan. If the government decides to divide the Punjab on ethnic grounds, it would lead to a clutter, resulting in an endless jumble, chaos, anarchy and political stalemate that would end up with confederation followed by balkanization because Pakistan is an ideological state and the only binding force among the federating units is the Islamic ideology which is free of the ills of regionalism, ethnicity, chauvinistic sentiments and tribal credo.
We should not forget that the only binding force between the East and West Pakistan was Islamic ideology and once it was replaced with Bangla nationalism that force vanished and Pakistan broke into two parts. The recent bid to divide the Punjab would pave the way for division of whole Pakistan into smaller provinces on ethnic basis and it would be like states within a state where different entities would be considered aliens, which would further stir mutual hatred and alienation among different ethnic and linguistic groups of Pakistan. The PPP and PML-Q politicians in the Punjab Assembly have been frustrated by the non-stop victory of PML-N in the Punjab and the only solution to stem this tide is to divide the province into northern and southern parts.
The timing of water division conflict is very important that coincides with the issue of creation of new provinces because Punjab’s water share could only be reduced if its size is cut short.
As mentioned by PML-N Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Ch Nisar Ali Khan, the issue of division of the Punjab originated from the presidency at a time when parliament’s committee on constitutional reforms has almost taken a final shape. The committee has to decide the future of the 17th Amendment and many other changes and extra-constitutional amendments made under the umbrella of PCO and LFO which are null and void under the pre-1999 1973 Constitution. These illegal amendments indemnify Musharraf’s 3rd Nov 2008 illegitimate acts of treason and cover certain ordinances including the NRO.
The division of the Punjab and other provinces is a political stunt, political addition to the already existing strategic impasse, threat on the military front in FATA and Swat and attempt to weaken the federation from within.
Though PML-N and some other political forces seriously concerned for the country’s stability would try to oppose the Punjab multiplication card being used by the PPP-led government, Zardari administration would try to bring her to a bargaining position even at the cost of country.
