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Bahawalpur South Punjab

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Country
  
Pakistan

Largest city
  
Multan

Assembly seats
  
39

Capital
  
Multan-Bahawalpur

Time zone
  
PKT (UTC+5)

Bahawalpur South Punjab

Bahawalpur South Punjab (BSP; Urdu: جنوبی پنجاب بہاولپور‎) was the name of a new province proposed by Pakistan Peoples Party Government in the National assembly of Pakistan in January 2013. to be created in the southernmost region of Pakistan's Punjab province, partially as a response to the demands of speakers of Multani and Derwi dialect of Western Punjabi language. However, due to following criticism the proposal could not materialize.

Criticism

Nine out of 13 districts to be included in the proposed province have rejected the proposal, citing the following reasons:

  • There is majority Punjabi population in five districts who identify themselves with north Punjab rather than South Punjab (Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Vehari, Khanewal, Mianwali and Bhakkar).
  • Baloch people are in majority in the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur who identify themselves with Baloch identity. They want their own separate Koh-Suleman province.
  • The popular demands of the residents of Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan is a separate province in the steps of the former princely state Bahawalpur.

    • In remaining four districts Multan, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Lodhran nearly 75% population is Majhi dialect of Punjabi speaking who objected to creation of a separate province based on linguistic criteria.

    Additionally, the political parties campaigning for the creation of Saraikistan also rejected the new province as incompatible with their agendas, while Pakistan People's Party denounced the proposal as a "political stunt".

    References

    Bahawalpur South Punjab Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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