LAHORE, Feb 7: Fakhar Zaman, the chairman of the World Punjabi Congress, has set in a new controversy by claiming that slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto was against the bifurcation of Punjab.

Speaking at a seminar here on Thursday, he said the question of dividing Punjab had been raised by a couple of Sindhi and Saraiki MNAs when he (Zaman) was provincial president of the PPP but Miss Bhutto told them emphatically that as the province had been a party bastion of the PPP she would not like to disturb her power-base.

Terming the bifurcation talk unjustified and “a conspiracy by the chauvinists against Punjabi culture, language and heritage”, he said it seemed that some vested interests, especially the feudal lords and the preachers of a certain language’s hegemony, wanted that Punjab should lose its rich identity.

He warned that the efforts could lead to a conflict and eventually delay the elections.

If Punjab was divided, he cautioned, it would lead to demands for Pushtoon, Balochi and Barahlvi provinces in Balochistan, the division of Karachi into West and East and a Saraiki province comprising Saraiki areas of Dera Ismail Khan, Jacobabad and southern districts of Sindh, and Hazara and FATA provinces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He suggested a national dialogue as well as a referendum on the new federating units issue after the elections.

He proposed establishment of high courts at all divisional headquarters of federating units in order to let the people have easy access to justice.