MANSEHRA: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousuf said on Sunday that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN)-led government considered the creation of more federating units an important issue of the contemporary era.
“I called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and discussed the creation of more federating units, with Hazara province as a priority. He would soon convene the meeting of the federal cabinet to discuss this important issue, which is being debated everywhere, including in the power corridors, nowadays,” he told journalists here.
Sardar Yousuf said that an important meeting of the Supreme Council of the Subah Hazara (TSH) Tehreek, which he leads as chairman, was held over the weekend and unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the federal government give Hazara division the status of a separate federating unit of the country.
“We want Hazara province to be at the top of the list of proposed federating units in the country, as the people of this division have laid down their lives for this cause for the first time in the history of the country,” he added.
The federal minister said that according to a carefully finalised estimate, if Hazara province was created, it would have a share of over Rs250 billion in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and generate annual revenue of more than Rs400 billion.
He said that people belonging to almost all political and religious parties in the country were part and parcel of the Hazara province movement. The supreme council had representation from the PMLN, PPP, PTI, JUIF, JI and other political parties and movements.
“The MNAs from Hazara, Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Ali Khan Jadoon, had moved the Hazara province resolution in the National Assembly, which was also signed by PMLN leaders Ahsan Iqbal and Marriyum Aurangzeb. This indicates that our party is not opposed to the creation of more federating units in the country,” Sardar Yousuf said.
He added that the supreme council of TSH had also discussed and welcomed the interior minister’s statement in favour of creating more federating units in the country.“Hazara province is the only proposed federating unit in the country for which the provincial assembly has twice passed resolutions overwhelmingly in its favour,” he maintained.
He said the creation of more federating units on an administrative basis could help address various challenges faced by the nation, which was why the government was taking the issue seriously.
