Creation of new province in Punjab: report on '24th Amendment Bill' tabled in Senate

The senators had a wonderful day albeit no legislative business in Senate on Thursday, pocketed daily allowances, greeted each other smilingly and left for Parliament's cafeteria for a cup of tea, wrapping up the whole business within 15 minutes.
A report of Senate's Standing Committee on Law and Justice on '24th Constitutional Amendment Bill-2013' was tabled in the house. This was the only business, which took hardly 2-3 minutes, afterwards Chairman Senate asked for point of orders but there was none.
"I think that's all for today and the house is adjourned to meet again on Friday at 10:30am," the chair declared and left the house. This is how the whole proceedings came to an end. The draft of the 24th Constitutional Bill-2013 pertaining to creation of a new province - Bahawalpur-Janoobi Punjab (BJP), was tabled in the house on February 8, and was referred to the Senate's Standing Committee on Law and Justice for further discussion.
The committee gave final touch to the bill on February 20 and passed it amid strong opposition by major opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), saying no province should be created on linguistic basis. They had accused the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of cashing in on the opportunity for gaining political mileage in the upcoming general elections despite the fact that it did not have the majority in both the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly of Punjab to get it passed with two-third majority.
Besides, the veteran PPP senator Raza Rabbani also attached a note of reiteration with the draft bill. Senator Rabbani argued in his note that the creation of new province is a historical process, therefore, provinces should not be carved out on the basis of administrative convenience. This will further aggravate the national, ethnic, linguistic and natural resources questions, he noted.
He said that it was correct that on the national or ethno-linguistic basis, certain regions may have a historically legitimate claim of being called a province, but this is not the appropriate time. "I concede that in these regions, this will be a political slogan for the elections, but national decisions are based on firmer reasoning," he stated. "If a new province is created on the basis of administrative necessity, the entire federal structure will require a revisit. Existing province will also come under the knife. Apart from sharpening the national and ethno-linguistic question, there will be a severe political backlash," he added.
Additionally, he noted that this will also affect the existing federal structure, as certain regions in the existing provinces may want realignment or inclusion in the new provinces. This will give rise to new regional tensions. Prior to taking this issue to Parliament or a provincial assembly, a detailed study as to the financial sustainability of the new province is required, he opined. The financial impact and liabilities will remain confined not only to the new and the portioned province but will impact on the federal budget and NFC, which shall have its own repercussion on other province, he added.
The 24th Constitutional Amendment Bill-2013 is likely to be presented for voting in the Upper House in next week in a bid to get it passed. But it is most likely that the bill would lapse as it could not be passed from the sitting National Assembly due to lack of two-third majority by the PPP-led coalition government. And even if it is passed by the NA, it will definitely be blocked by PML-N in Punjab Assembly, a constitutional requirement to be passed by the respective provincial assembly where a new province is being created.