September 14, 2006	Thursday	Sha'aban 20, 1427

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MULTAN, Sept 13: The Lahore High Court Bar Association (Multan bench) has demanded a separate province having Seraiki-speaking areas, saying the demand is based on historical facts.

“The provincial autonomy is currently the foremost political issue of the country but its resolution will be useless without the creation of a Seraiki province”.

At a meeting here on Wednesday, LHCBA (Multan bench) President Mahmood Ashraf Khan said the East Pakistan-like situation was arising with unjust distribution. The Punjab government, he said, was depriving the Seraiki people of their rights.

The local lawyers would also resist separation of Sahiwal from Multan bench, he said.

Qari Ikramul Haq Qureshi said time had come to establish a separate province for the Seraiki population of 45 million.

According to Syed Khurshid Abbas Gardezi, the movement for a separate Saraiki province in Punjab is the result of a sense of deprivation among the people of the Seraiki belt who are being exploited. “The government should make a fifth province for the Seraiki people.”

Khwaja Shoaib, the All-Pakistan Small Traders Alliance president, said southern Punjab was producing 90 per cent of the cotton, wheat, thermal power generation, limestone, gypsum, uranium and other minerals but unfortunately the Seraiki area (also called South Punjab) had been neglected in last 60 years as no significant work had been done to develop this area.

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