MIANWALI, Dec 12: The people of Mianwali have rejected Punjab government’s move to carve out a new division out of Sargodha and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions, saying there is no rationale behind detaching their district from Sargodha division and attaching it with the so-called Thal division as it has no demographic connection with the Thal area.

Mianwali residents are shocked at the surprise move by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif which is, they think, aimed at punishing them for their support to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the general elections. They are not pleased with the decision and had strong reservations about it.

The plan was kept so secret that three out of four MPAs of Mianwali and one out of its two MNAs didn’t know anything about it until the print media got a whiff of it.

Mianwali was made district in 1901 with Bhakkar as its tehsil which assumed the status of district in 1982. Before 1901, Mianwali was a sub-division of Bannu district and subsequently Dera Ismail Khan remained its divisional headquarters.

It is learnt that district Bhakkar is going to be the divisional headquarters in the new setup and people of Mianwali would never like to be treated as subservient to their earlier tehsil and their resentment may take the form of protest.

The people argue that if establishment of Thal division is necessary, the Thal area of Khushab and Jhang districts was more proper to be included in the proposed division instead of Mianwali.

The Mianwali District Bar Association, in a meeting on Thursday, unanimously passed a resolution to condemn the proposed plan of the Punjab government. It further resolved that it would soon chalk out a strategy to launch a protest against the decision.

Talking to Dawn, bar president Sardar Nasrullah Khan urged the politicians of the district to get united to deter the Punjab government from taking the decision. He flayed the ‘lazy’ response of the MPAs and MNAs of the district to the critical decision.

Former district attorney and senior advocate Sardar Khan Niazi had different view on the issue and said the move appeared to be a trap by the CM and his cronies to include Mianwali in the proposed Seraiki province because the people of the district had opposed their inclusion in the proposed province earlier.

Talking to Dawn, PML-N MPA Amanatullah Khan Shadikhel said he had opposed the Thal division plan in the first meeting held in this regard by saying there was no need of the new division and if its so important, its headquarters should be Mianwali with nomenclature of Mianwali division instead of Thal division.