A case for Seraiki province

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By Manzoor Chandio
June 27, 2009

The movement for a Seraiki province is gaining momentum. Seraiki, one of the representative languages of the Indus Valley civilization, besides Sindhi and Punjabi, is the country’s largest spoken language.
Seraikis are concentrated in South Punjab and Dera Ismail Khan division of the NWFP — their historical abode from time immemorial.
The area has been a separate administrative region for centuries and has a separate cultural and linguistic identity from other areas.
Unfortunately, the Seraiki belt has been severally neglected in the past 62 years and no significant development work has been done for the uplift of people and to preserve their language and culture.
There is no representation of the language and culture on the national level because the area has no separate territory.
Administratively, Seraiki districts are far away from the capitals of Punjab and the NWFP and this makes difficult for the people to benefit from the provincial resources.
It is an irony that the biggest nationality of the country has no geographical identity. The only language which is spoken in the four provinces has no official status.
The establishment has always followed the policy of overcentralisation on the pretext of oneness. Actually this artificial oneness is aimed at usurping the rights of smaller nations.
All major taxes are levied and collected by the Centre and distributed on the basis of population among the provinces.
Punjab being the largest province grabs the lion’s share in the revenue. The creation of the Seraiki province is the only solution to growing disparity among Punjab districts because most of the provincial budget is spent on Punjabi-speaking districts.
Recently MPA Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mehmood told the Punjab Assembly that “Rahimyar Khan, with a population of 3.6 million, has just four degree colleges each for boys and girls, while Gujranwala, with a population of 2.6 million, has 16 colleges for girls and 21 for boys”.
Seraikis’ mandate, who overwhelmingly voted for the PPP, is not being recognised in Lahore. The PML(N) is a party which not only stands for the status quo in the country but also wants perpetual deprivation of the Seraiki belt. The previous PML(Q) government in Punjab did nothing for the Seraiki districts, paving way for recruitments of jihadi militants from the Seraiki belt.For centuries, Seraiki areas were part of Sindh.
Multan was a separate pragna (province) during the Mughal era. It was Ranjit Singh who annexed Seraiki lands and merged them into Punjab.The British merged Dera Ismail Khan with the NWFP. There is no wrong if Seraikis have their own province in Pakistan.
According to one of the proposals, Seraiki province should be carved out of Seraiki-speaking areas annexed by Ranjit Singh and the erstwhile Bahawalpur state and Seraiki-speaking areas merged into the NWFP by the British Raj.
Definitely, Seraikis will benefit from their own province. The area is not as industrialised as the central Punjab, but it contributes most of the raw material (cotton) for Pakistan’s main exports — fabric, yarn and garments.
The area is also rich in mango orchids and other crops. Above all, the Seraiki area is the heart of the country.
The creation of the Seraiki province should not be seen in the context of separation. Punjab has heavily industrialised only the central districts, depriving Seraikis of prosperity.With the creation of the Seraiki province, they would get their own share of revenue which would ultimately result in their prosperity.
There is no wrong if a province is carved out of a big province according to the wishes of Seraiki people, who historically own this land.
The demand for the province is not tantamount to grabbing others’ land but Seraikis are demanding the revival of an administrative unit which existed there from time immemorial.
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NFC: issues in equitable revenue distribution

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By Manzoor Chandio
April 27, 2009

The PPP government, which had rejected the Musharraf interim award as unconstitutional, is sticking to an old unworkable formula instead of evolving a multiple criterion for a more equitable distribution of resources among the provinces and the federation.
The constitution of the National Finance Commission and the formulation of the NFC award has been put on the backburner while the government is busy in restoring macro-economic stability. without the much needed fiscal autonomy for the federating units, required for it.
All major taxes are levied and collected by the federal government and distributed on the basis of a single criteria of population among the provinces. The three minority provinces reject this formula and many ideas are being thrown up to improve the system.
According to Barrister Zamir Ghumro the country’s economy faced an uncertain future because of over-centralisation of governance and economic and taxation systems.
He calls for creating self-reliant province-based economic units and taxation system. He said the provinces need fiscal autonomy to stand on their feet.
The sales tax must be devolved and an independent NFC set up to give an award on the basis of multiple criterion. Currently, the NFC is a government body, in which all stakeholders are represented.
Barrister Ghumro said population criteria is ultra vires as there is no mention of population or consensus in the Constitution, adding that the GST should be transferred to the provinces.
Former MNA Mujeeb Pirzado believes that there is need for a constitutional amendments to get a fair share resources for the provinces.
He suggests amendments to the Article 160 of the Constitution to make the National Finance Commission redundant. He said each federating unit should be allowed to collect and pool taxes in the Provincial Consolidated Fund.
Article 119 of the Constitution empowered provinces to regulate all matters connected with or ancillary to the provincial fund.
Mr Pirzado proposed that the federal duty of excise on natural gas levied at well-head and collected by the centre, and royalty collected by the federal government, should not form a part of the Federal Consolidated Fund. These taxes should be deposited directly to the Provincial Consolidated Fund.
Such taxes as GST, excise, property, corporation, sales and purchase, capital value tax, mineral, oil, production and fees should directly go the Provincial Consolidated Fund.
He said that 50 per cent of the taxes collected by the provinces should be deposited in the Federal Consolidated Fund and 50 per cent in the Provincial Consolidated Fund.
When Mr Pirzado was asked about Punjab’s insistence on maintaining the status quo on the population-based NFC award, he said Punjab should agree to the promulgation of a new law to convert this “cosmetic federation” into a “genuine federation.”
Rejecting the present interim NFC, Sindh Democratic Forum secretary Zulfiqar Halepoto proposed an award based on multiple criterion. He said the Charter of Democracy has also given a clear mandate for distribution of resources on multiple criterion. In the first budget, he said, PPP got little time to review the NFC. Now they have ample time to honour their commitments.
However, some experts are of the view that with the interim NFC award given by the former President Perveiz Mushrraf, no new award can be given before 2010.
Halepoto said that Sindh had also conveyed its objections over the terms of references of NFC as a lot of things have been included in them which do not come under the mandate of National Finance Commission.
He said Sindh’s provincial committee on NFC will draw clear-cut terms of reference on NFC and will persuade the federal government to include the issue of royalty on crude oil and gas development surcharge. The provincial government will also demand that GST on services must be transferred back to provinces as this tax was the sole right of provinces.
In 2003, the Sindh Assembly in a resolution said that after deduction of five per cent collection charges and payment of three per cent and two per cent respectively to Balochistan and the NWFP as subvention, the federal government would credit the net proceeds of the taxes collected from each province into the provincial exchequer.
The resolution said the federation distributed resources on the basis of population and proposed that it should instead collect taxes on the same basis from the provinces i.e. Punjab should contribute to the federation 55 per cent of its revenue, Sindh 23 per cent, the NWFP 13 per cent and Balochistan five per cent.
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Cost of illegal aliens

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By Manzoor Chandio
March 9, 2009
Legislators are expected to defend the rights of people from whom they get votes. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Sindh.
Lawmakers' utter ignorance on everything aside, but defending three million illegal immigrants at the cost of tax payers shows how insensitive are they about the rights of their own people.
Recently MPA Syeda Marvi Rashdi went on saying “discrimination was rife, especially against Bengali aliens, and it was the government's responsibility to protect their rights as they were human beings after all.”
Why she's not so much concerned about the human rights of her own voters? Perhaps she doesn't know their problems.
Sindh's James Bond Home Minister says they do not have sufficient funds to expatriate these aliens and that it was essentially a subject under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Does he know by expatriating three million illegal immigrants, the Sindh government can save hundreds of megawatts power, thousands of gallons water and several tones of atta daily?Affluent Western countries are working on many plans to expatriate illegal immigrants from their countries, because of resource crunch.
Three million illegal aliens in Sindh are not only burden on resources but involved in street crimes, power theft, unhygienic selling of sugar cane juices, cigarettes, gutka, mainpuri and rotten fish.
Many Bangladeshis have adopted fishing along the Sindh coast at the cost of local fishermen. Afghans have been found involved in selling drugs and weapons.
Karachi, where most of the illegal aliens are living, is a city with inadequate urban services like health, water supply, electricity, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management.
The city is prone to daily snatching of hundreds of cell phones and hijacking of dozens of vehicles.
The country imports wheat to fulfill the needs of eating mouths. When there is shortage of atta the commodity is sold on exorbitant rates. Karachi also faces an acute shortage of power.
Illegal immigrants not only use hundreds of megawatt power but also indulge in pilferage.
They have encroached upon pavements in many areas and using electricity with the connivance of KESC officials. Sindh faces manifold problems because of illegal influx of people and misplaced attempts of making it an international orphanage of Muslims displaced anywhere on the globe. While the fact is that local people themselves are reeling from illiteracy and poverty.
In the past, even Rohingya Muslims suffering oppression in Burma and Karan fighters from Thailand turned up on Karachi coastline and staying illegally in different areas of the city.
The Sindh government should impose penalties on Karachi industrialists for providing jobs to illegal immigrants.
Factory owners in Karachi's five industrial estates should be reminded that they had set up their businesses on lands obtained from the Sindh government.
What people crave from the PPP government now is making policies that protect their daily lives from power crisis, lack of water and medicines. People want action that reaches decisions quickly.
The government should be able to fix the current power crisis. The Sindh government today is required to show strong initiative to expatriate illegal immigrants.
We also do not understand why the PPP government is reluctant in putting together its manifesto of providing roti, kapra and makan to own people.
Sindhi legislators need to understand this clearly that their first responsibility is to protect Sindh's interests and provide power, gas, water, civic facilities, employment and peace to people from whom they have gotten votes.
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