Contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product (GDP) is 21.8 per cent. The largest part of agricultural output like rice and other are produced in Southern Punjab, and it can rightly be said that biggest contribution in agricultural production comes from this area. Still, this part of country, which is famous for its hard working labour, great political leadership and cultural background, is considered as the most backward area in respect of basic facilities provided to public. A reason behind this is the lack of interest of leadership in the region.
The biggest city of South Punjab, Multan, does not only boast of its ancient history, it is still living in ancient times due to non-provision of basic facilities and infrastructure. This region is fortunate regarding the political leadership, but very unfortunate as far as basic provisions like road infrastructure, health and education facilities are concerned. The area having a population more than that of two provinces and commonly known as the "Saraikee Belt" has been a victim of government's negligence since the creation of Pakistan. With over 40 million population, the area is still backward in terms of health and educational facilities, let alone industrial progress.
Availability of educational facilities in this vastly spread area can be gauged by the fact that there exist only two universities: one in Multan, the 5th largest city of the country, known as Bahauddin Zakriya University, and second is the Islamia University Bahawalpur. Likewise, there are only two medical colleges: the Nishtar Medical college in Multan and Queen Victoria medical college in Bahawalpur. This is surely not more than a joke for the area having population of more than forty million.
Now let us take up the issue of Industry, which is still a dream for people of South Punjab, as except for the Pak Arab Oil Refinery (PARCO) and Pak Arab Fertilizer Multan, the only other worth mentioning entities are Independent Power Producers in Muzaffargarh and Kot Addu. Oher than these, there is no industry from Mianwali to Sadiqabad that could provide employment to the people. The area produces seventy per cent of the total cotton produced in the country, but the textile industry is established at Faisalabad and Karachi. Once there were two textile mills, Allah Wasaya and Sutlej textiles, but today Allah Wasaya is not more than a pile of rubbles, while Sutlej textile mill is just working as a spinning mill.
Communication infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the progress of a country or region. If the Northern and Southern parts of country were not intended to be connected, then this area would have been deprived of the few roads present today.
These are some of the reasons that led to the increase in hatred against the federal government and ‘Takht-e-Lahore’ (provincial government), due to which the demand of granting the status of province to South Punjab is gaining pace day by day. This demand is now been raised at the central level.
Though, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi belong to this area, there is no hope for local people of getting basic facilities. The premier tried his best to fasten up the development, but the finance advisor, Shaukat Tareen, who also belongs to this area, neglected it in formulating the federal budget – all because it is a tradition of political leadership to neglect the area from where they were elected.
Southern Punjab has had a fair share of its people serving at the top positions like premiership, chief minister, Governor, Speaker, and important ministries, but those who benefited were the elites not the general public. But who has to be blamed for this as the politics of this region is revolving around feudalism for past 60 years, which doesn’t allow the public to progress.
The government has once again neglected this area while formulating the budget 2009-10. The government has announced the public sector development program (PSDP) of  Rs646 billion, of which a sum of only Rs10.5 billion is allocated for Southern Punjab, and likewise, Punjab government has allocated just Rs5 billion. Allocation of Rs15 billion development budget for the area having population of 40 million shows that the government can't watch South Punjab progressing like Balochistan. By reviewing the PSDP allocated for South Punjab, it was revealed that Rs10 billion is allocated for Prime Minister's Multan package only, while the remaining Rs 0.5 billion is meant for whole of the South Punjab.
The political and public demands for making South Punjab a separate province are being raised since long, but it is for the first time that the word Southern Punjab is used by the official authorities in the budget documents. This shows that government has realized that these problems could only be solved by declaring South Punjab as a province. This demand has suddenly intensified recently and all of the parliamentarians belonging to South Punjab are supporting this demand.