Ethnicity was fuelled in the aftermath of the eighteenth constitutional amendment that allowed the renaming of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) leading to violent protests by the people of Hazara for a separate province.
Talk of more provinces: political brinkmanship or a genuine demand Though passionate calls had continuously been made in the past for creation of smaller provinces along linguistic and ethnic lines, the clamour for increasing the number of provinces received an impetus subsequent to the renaming of NWFP as KP to fulfil a long term manifesto item of the ANP, a government coalition partner.
To further fuel the fires of ethnicity that already rage in the country, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced that the PPP in its next election manifesto would propose carving out a Seraiki province in south of Punjab. Political pundits maintain that the target for this salvo was PML (N) after its party leadership severely criticised the PPP leadership including President Asif Ali Zardari.
To carve out new provinces from existing ones is something that several other countries have undertaken successfully. India for example, created several new states and union territories since 1956. Bombay State was split into the linguistic states of Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1960. Nagaland was made a state in December 1963. Punjab was divided along linguistic lines, creating a new Hindi-speaking state of Haryana, transferring the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh, and designating Chandigarh, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, a union territory.
Statehood was conferred upon Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura. The Kingdom of Sikkim joined the Indian Union as a state on 26 April 1975. In 1987, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram became states on 20 February, followed by Goa on 30 May, while Goa's northern exclaves of Daman and Diu became a separate union territory.
In 2000 three new states were created: Chhattisgarh (1 November 2000) was created out of eastern Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal (9 November 2000), since renamed Uttarakhand, was created out of the Hilly regions of north-west Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand (15 November 2000) was created out of the southern districts of Bihar. The Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry have since been given the right to elect their own legislatures and they are now counted as small states However, in case of Pakistan, demands for the creation of more provinces have had elements of political brinkmanship. The PPP wants to create a Seraiki province to contain or limit the PML (N) to a smaller Punjab while the PML (N) wants to create a Hazara province as it has an overall majority there.
But a veteran politician known for his integrity, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of PML-N received a huge round of applause from every sitting member of the National Assembly on Thursday when he attempted to sensitise the legislature about the gravity of the situation over the demand for smaller provinces.
"It is high time to accept the demand for more provinces," Hashmi said while warning politicians that the "geographical shape of Pakistan may change if we leave this matter for the next assembly".
"Not Punjab but Pakistan is dear to us," he said adding that "I am from Punjab but creation of new provinces is the need of the hour". Javed Hashmi, who had been victimised by former military dictator Parvez Musharraf stated, "Punjab has a population of about 100 million and this factor facilitates dictators since they believe that the biggest province of the country is behind them. A mindset which we inherited from the British is against creation of new provinces," he said.
Hashmi urged the lawmakers to work out a formula for creation of new provinces like the way Indians had done. In addition, Javed Hashmi talked without fear of any possible disciplinary reprisals by his party's leadership. He first expressed remorse for being in the cabinet of military dictator General Ziaul Haq by tendering an apology and urged his own leadership, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif, to apologise to the nation for their association with the dictator though he reminded the house that his party had waged a war against another dictator (Parvez Musharraf) and had paid a huge price.
Well aware about the consequences of his statement in the house, he also revealed that he had never requested for a party ticket and was not concerned if he was not given the opportunity in the next elections. Hashmi acknowledged that Bhutto was a great leader but added "ZAB learnt a lesson after spending ten years with Ayub Khan."
"Today's Pakistan needs a leader who can sacrifice his own life for the country," Hashmi said while urging the leadership of the country to bring their money back from foreign banks. "If you are a leader, then do not have any account outside the country but if you have accounts and stakes then do not become a leader," Javed Hashmi advised.