Breaking up of Punjab... By Anjum
07 February, 2013
Some leaders have determinedly announced that new provinces be created by breaking the existing provinces. Yousaf Raza Gilani is firm that the Southern Punjab province be created before the elections. The irony is that the constitution of Pakistan is being violated. The Lahore High Court (LHC) has also observed that the current parliament has no mandate to do so. The very first article of the constitution reads that there will be only four provinces, i.e. Balochistan, NWFP, Punjab and Sindh. Now, the rulers are after the most important province. There are yet other voices that say Bahawalpur state should be converted into another new province. The 'greatness' of Punjab has been illustrated by one Robert D Kaplan who has characterised the perversity of Pakistan at the present moment. According to him, Pakistan is a military state that, for decades, invested in conflicts with India but now in its civilian elite, which pays almost no taxes. It produces less electricity for use, has a nonexistent education system but has an overbearing military presence. He says that there was much history and geography behind the drive of Jinnah to create a separate Muslim state anchored in the subcontinent, although it is now in trouble and is at stake. The process of Muslim conquests began in Sindh, Iran and Afghanistan, and also in the vicinity of the Middle East. All kings and raiders came through after touching the slopes of the Afghan hills before reaching the five rivers of Punjab. They often settled down in the Indus Valley or around Delhi where culture grew and progressed. Before the partition of 1947, two big provinces of combined India were divided into two pieces — Punjab (between Muslims and Hindus) and Bengal (between Muslims and Hindus in the east). It is a pity that Punjab is again being broken not in further twos but into many pieces. The soldiers from Punjab are the best fighters. Most of the Victoria Crosses and the only George Cross went to Punjabi Muslims. Nishan-i-Haider trophies in the Pak-India wars were awarded mostly to Punjabi soldiers. Punjab has about 80 percent of the Pakistan Army and more than half of the federal bureaucracy. Punjab is like an internal power ruling Pakistan in the way that Serbia and the Serbian army ran Yugoslavia in its prime, prior to that country's civil war. Another well-known Muslim historian has written, "If the motherland of five rivers had not been obtained, then it would have been impossible to establish Pakistan." A Q ANJUM
Rawalpindi
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