Demand of the Saraiki Province and the Role of Political Parties

A Comparative Study of Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (2008-2018)

Abstract

The sense of deprivation often leads towards ethnic conflicts in state. The lack of social, political and economic opportunities create tendencies of demanding new units within the state. The demand of the Saraiki province is also an example of the demand of the deprived people. The Saraiki province has been a long wish of local people of Saraiki belt. Almost all the past governments did not heed proper attention and any mechanism could not be emerged for the Saraiki province. The Saraiki belt (Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan), despite the promise of equal rights by giving new province to them, the people of Saraiki belt were not facilitated even with the basic rights of education and health. The South Punjab may be regarded as periphery of the core for the federal and the provincial governments of Pakistan where both the governments are manipulating its resources and manpower. The south Punjab, in turn, gets further decrease in development and funds as Punjab is a large province which may not address the issues of a common man at its doorstep. Moreover, display of poor governance is seen everywhere as the required funds and power are not given to the Saraiki belt. Pakistan people’s Party remained in power from 2018 and Pakistan Muslim League N steered the government from 2013to 2018. Despite the promises and claims, both the parties could not even brought the Saraiki province issue to limelight. The objective of the paper is to find out the working of the political parties for the new Saraiki province. Applying descriptive and analytical method, this comparative study focused on the policies, performance and role of two major political parties, PPP and PMLN, regarding the formation of the Saraiki province in South Punjab.

 Key words: Saraikee province, Role of Political Parties, PPP, PMLN, South Punjab