Eight lawmakers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party today parted ways with it and announced the launch of a mass movement to make South Punjab a separate province, in a fresh blow to the ruling party.
"Making south Punjab a separate province is our one-point agenda," Khusro Bakhtiar, a member of the National Assembly, said while addressing a press conference here along with other disgruntled PML-N leaders.
Announcing their decision, the dissidents said time has come to make South Punjab a separate province. They said they enjoyed the support of nearly 15 more lawmakers of the national and provincial assemblies.
Bakhatiar said that the party enjoyed mandate of the people of the region and that it should be respected. According to them, the poverty ratio in the area has touched a starling 51 per cent.
Apart from Bakhtiar, the other rebel lawmakers are Alam Dar Laleka, Basit Bukhari, Syed Asghar Ali Shah, Nasrullah Dareshak and Rana Qasim Noon, Express News reported.
Bakhtiar said they would start the 'South Punjab Front' movement.
"The size of South Punjab is almost the same as Khyber Pashtunkhawa. We have 46 MNAs in the [National] Assembly at the moment and yet they gave us just one seat in the Senate."
Bakhtiar explained: "New provincial demarcations are the need of the time. 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 said, adding that "All we want is equality amongst the regions."
Speaking of the movement's direction, Bakhtiar said, "We are ready for dialogue with any party."
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