PML-N not against creation of new provinces: Nawaz

MULTAN: Former Prime Minister and President of PML-N Mian Nawaz Sharif said on Friday that his party was not against the creation of new provinces, however, it should be done on administrative grounds and not on ethnic or linguistic basis.

Talking to newsmen at the local airport, Mian Nawaz Sharif said PML-N stance was clear on the issue of new provinces adding, it should be done with consensus and aspirations of the people should be respected.

He said that smaller administrative units should be formed for speedy redressal of problems of the people.

The PML-N President who had a brief stay at the airport while on way from flood-hit Nawab Shah to Lahore, said that he did not oppose the creation of new provinces, but it would be wrong if it was done on the basis of language or ethnicity. Such kind of politics should be discouraged for it had always proved disastrous, he added.

Responding to a question on deprivations of South Punjab, he said that population of South Punjab was 31 per cent of the Punjab province population and the provincial government had allocated 32 per cent resources for this area.

This area was also allocated 12 per cent more than its share in the Yellow Cab Scheme while most of the Daanish Schools were being set up here, he added.

He recalled that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif remained in South Punjab last year to supervise relief and rescue activities during the 2010 floods.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011