Talking to Business Recorder on telephone after adoption of a resolution by the National Assembly for formation of a south Punjab province, Saraiki National Party Chairman Abdul Majeed Kanjo said the Pakistan People's Party had betrayed the 700 million Saraiki speaking people by abandoning the Saraiki province in favour of South Punjab province. He said different Saraiki nationalist parties including Pakistan Saraiki Party, Siraikistan Qaumi Movement, and others would continue their struggle for the realisation of political, economic, cultural, identity, linguistic rights which would make Pakistan more strong, stable and prosperous.
Commenting on adoption of South Punjab resolution by the National Assembly on Thursday, political analysts said there had been a paradigm shift in PPP policy line as it had abandoned the idea of linguistic based provinces. "If it had supported the creation of a Saraiki province, then it would have to support Hindo speaking Hazara province in KPK, Pashto speaking province in Balochistan and ultimately an Urdu speaking province in Sindh." Another commentator said that establishment of South Punjab and Bahawalpur provinces would pave the way for construction of Kalabagh dam over river Indus in Punjab as only those two provinces would be main beneficiary of the dam.
They said the main opponents of the dam, Sindh and KPK would be outnumbered in a vote on the controversial project since Punjab, South Punjab and Bahawalpur provinces would whole heartedly support the construction of the dam whereas Balochistan province may abstain in the voting. They said in a smart move to out-wit PPP, PML-N had also moved a resolution in the National Assembly for the creation of South Punjab, Bahawalpur, Hazara and a province based on Fata territories in KPK. Since MQM and PML-Q are committed to support establishment of Hazara province, the move has put strain on the PPP-led Federal coalition government.