LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah has denied reports of any significant political meeting in London, dismissing them as rumour, and has said that a public referendum cannot be brought about by a minister’s statement.
Commenting on the debate over the creation of new provinces, Mr Sanaullah said the reported meeting between Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and President Asif Ali Zardari carried no extraordinary significance, since the two meet on a daily basis.
He said the proper venue for the debate was Parliament. If the question of new provinces was to be taken up now, he said, a fresh resolution would have to be passed. The old resolutions of the Punjab Assembly had become ineffective, he added, and the resolutions relating to making Bahawalpur and Multan provinces were no longer operative.
The adviser said people issued various statements every day and that it was not possible to respond to each one. Sharjeel Memon had also issued a lengthy statement, he noted, saying it was no longer feasible to chase every remark.
A public referendum, he said, would not come about through a minister’s statement; parliamentary approval was necessary for a referendum.
Mr Sanaullah said certain matters were being spun in the media, and that when the debate reached Parliament the government would present its full position. Those issuing statements could not be silenced, he said, but whatever decision Parliament reached would be taken forward by consensus.
Endorsing a statement by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, he said she had said something entirely correct, and that those wearing the spectacles of prejudice were unable to grasp the actual situation.
On incidents of terrorism in Punjab, the Prime Minister’s adviser said such incidents had occurred in the province and that the terrorists involved had come from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Afghan nationals and elements who had fled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been targeting Punjab, he said, and the greatest threat to Punjab came from those elements.
He said the threat identified by the Chief Minister of Punjab was accurate, but that some people, because of prejudice, were unable to understand the reality of her statement.
The creation of a new province in Pakistan is among the most procedurally demanding acts available under the Constitution. Article 239(4) requires that a constitutional amendment altering the limits of a province must first be passed by the provincial assembly concerned by a two-thirds majority, before proceeding to a two-thirds vote in both houses of Parliament.
That sequence explains the significance of Mr Sanaullah’s remark about the lapse of earlier resolutions. In 2012, the Punjab Assembly passed a resolution supporting the creation of a South Punjab province, and a parliamentary commission was constituted; the process did not survive the end of that assembly’s term. Resolutions of a dissolved assembly do not bind its successor, and any fresh attempt would require the entire sequence to begin again.
The demand for a Bahawalpur province rests on a distinct historical claim — the former princely state acceded to Pakistan in 1947 and retained a separate administrative identity until the One Unit scheme merged it into West Pakistan in 1955. Advocates of a Multan-centred South Punjab province argue instead on grounds of administrative distance and development indicators.
Article 48(6) empowers the President, on the advice of the Prime Minister, to refer a matter of national importance to a referendum, with the manner of conduct to be regulated by an Act of Parliament. Mr Sanaullah’s insistence on parliamentary approval reflects that requirement rather than a political preference.
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