Lahore: The group of politicians most of whom defected from the PML-N to form a South Punjab Province Front (or, Janoobi Punjab Suba Mahaz in Urdu) on Tuesday agreed to join the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).
The development was confirmed to the media by PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry.
“The negotiations between PTI and JPSM have concluded,” Chaudhry said, adding that an official confirmation of the agreement is scheduled to be made in a joint press conference on Wednesday (today).
The JPSM group, which comprises more than 15 former elected representatives of the PML-N, is expected to make its merger official after meeting PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday.
“The rest of the details will be disclosed tomorrow in Islamabad,” Chaudhry said.
The JPSM is a group of like-minded politicians, mostly from the ruling PML-N, who demand the creation of a new province in south Punjab. Early last month, Khusro Bakhtiar, a former PML-N leader from south Punjab, had held a press conference flanked by like-minded lawmakers to demand a new province ‘for the security of the future of the children of south Punjab’. During his press conference, Bakhtiar said, “New provincial demarcations are the need of the hour. We are not here to start a rift – time has made the need for new provinces very apparent.”
“The demarcation of new provinces will ensure that funds allocated for Rajanpur are not given to Multan,” he continued. “All we want is equality amongst the regions.”
“We have a single point agenda: the creation of a new province in south Punjab,” he said.
Speaking of the possibility of an alliance in future, Bakhtiar said, “We are ready for dialogue with any party. Our goal is simple: when the new assemblies take oath, the legislation for a new province should be passed in the first session. If that does not happen, we will go to the Supreme Court,” he said.
Later, the PTI backed the JPSM’s demand for a separate province, ‘not for linguistic reasons but on administrative grounds to mitigate the miseries and sense of deprivation being faced by some 35 million people living in Bahawalpur, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions’. After the formation of the JPSM, politicians who have been demanding provincial status for Bahawalpur also became after and announced holding a series of protests.
Published in Daily Times, May 9th 2018.
