| It's going to get worse as there are fewer goodies to spread around, given the worsening economy plus America's reduced need to pay jizya to transport supplies to troops no longer in Afghanistan... |
. A large number of people (about 70 percent of the population) living in areas stretching from the border of Central and South Punjab to the border of Sindh and South Punjab expect a new entity to be created called Saraikistan or perhaps South Punjab. Some may ask what lies in a name as long as power is transferred from the Central Punjabi stronghold in Lahore to some other place closer to 'home'. Indeed, this is an argument that was made by the Saraiki politician Sherbaz Mazari and is currently being made by politicians like Yusuf Raza Gillani. From the ruling PPP's perspective, bankrolling the Saraiki movement is a plan B to secure at least part of Punjab if the larger province cannot be secured and lured away from PML-N. Such a plan needn't annoy the Punjabis or Mohajirs settled in South Punjab who may otherwise feel insecure at the idea of a new province in the South. So, the powerful establishment launched clients like the former information minister Mehmood Durrani to raise the issue of the restoration of Bahawalpur province to checkmate the Saraiki province movement. Pakistain's establishment, dominated by the military and civil bureaucracy, is traditionally uncomfortable with the multiple identity discourse. ...It's also due to this emotional insecurity that it has become almost impossible to re-draw internal political boundaries. The formation of a Saraiki province is quite difficult also because it would include not just a major chunk of Punjab but bits of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
as well, particularly the district DI Khan. And that may not be welcomed by the KPK politicians. But there is also the question of whether the Saraiki political class is ready to take the identity issue to a higher level of contestation. Despite the rising echo of the demand for a Saraiki province, the project is nowhere close to completion. One of the reasons for this is the dominance of the Punjabi and Mohajir in the politics of Saraiki areas.