South Punjab ( ur, ) or Saraikistan (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, comprising the areas which has a majority of

Saraikis The Saraikis ( skr, ), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group inhabiting parts of central and southeastern Pakistan, primarily in the southern part of the Pakistani province of Punjab They are mainly found in a region of southern Punjab known ...

in the southern part of Punjab province. Made up of

Bahawalpur Division Bahawalpur Division () is an administrative division of the Punjab Province, Pakistan. The reforms of 2000 abolished the third tier of government but division system was restored again in 2008. Districts It contains the following districts: * ...

Multan Division Multan Division is an administrative division of Punjab Province, Pakistan. The reforms of 2000 abolished the third tier of government but the division system was restored again in 2008. Districts It consists of the following districts: Histo ...

and

Dera Ghazi Khan Division Dera Ghazi Khan Division is an administrative division of the Punjab Province, Pakistan. The reforms of 2000 abolished the third tier of government but division system was restored again in 2008. Districts It contains the following districts: * ...

, the proposed Saraikistan forms about 52 percent of the total area and 32 percent of the population of Punjab province. Saraikistan has a population of 34,743,590 as of 2017, up from 23,507,210 in 1998.

History

In 2012, Punjab Provincial Assembly and the National Assembly passed resolutions for the creation of new province in Punjab. These resolutions were supported by the

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

(PPP) and

Pakistan Muslim League (N) The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) ( ur, , translit=Pākistān Muslim Līg (Nūn) PML(N) or PML-N) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right and Liberal conservatism, liberal conservative political party in Pakistan. Alongside the Pakistan Teh ...

(PMLN) and was passed. In 2013 election the PPP tried to mobilize the Seraiki voters over the Saraikistan province creation. But they got only one National Assembly seat from the Saraikistan region. In 2018 the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

(PTI) promised to create a new province in South Punjab within the first 100 days of taking office, if they win.

PTI PTI may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Pardon the Interruption'', an American television sports show * PTI, a musical group on the WTII Records label Organizations * Pacific Torah Institute, a yeshiva high school in Vancouver, British Columb ...

won the election and won 30 out of 50 seats of the National Assembly seats in South Punjab. On August 15, 2018, the PTI MPA of Punjab Assembly, Mohsin Leghari tabled a resolution for the creation of a new province in South Punjab. In 2022 the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

accepted a bill seeking creation of South Punjab province on 18 January, and was supported by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Establishment of Separate Administrative Secretariat

In 2020, a separate secretariat was established for southern areas of Punjab (Saraikistan). The secretariat is made up of

and

. It became officially operational on 15 October 2020. Initially the departments of Services and General administration (S & GAD), Home department, Health, Education, Agriculture, Planning and Development, Live stock and dairy development, Local government and community development, Housing, urban development and Public health engineering, Irrigation, Forest, Communication and works, Revenue and Police are included in the separate Administrative Secretariat of Saraikistan region with following officers: # (i) Zahid Akhtar Zaman, June 30, 2020, to March 3, 2021 (ii) Saif Anjum, March 10, 2021, to April 11, 2021 (iii) Captain Retd Saqib Zafar, April 12, 2021, to till now, Additional Chief Secretary, South Punjab # (i)Captain (Retd) Zafar Iqbal, September 2020 to March 2022 (ii) Dr Ehsan Sadiq March 15, 2022 to December 27, 2022 (iii) Sahibzada Muhammad Shehzad Sultan, December 27, 2022 to till now, Additional Inspector General of Police, South Punjab # Momin Agha, Secretary Home department # Nosheen Malik, Secretary S & GAD # Dr. Ahtasham Anwar, Secretary Education # Muhammad Ajmal Bhatti, Secretary Health # Rana Ubaidullah Anwar, Secretary Finance # Shoaib Iqbal Syed, Secretary Planning and Development # Rana Khurram Shehzad Umar, Secretary Local government and community development # Liaqat Ali Chatha, Secretary Housing, Urban development and Public health engineering # Saqib Ali Ateel, Secretary Agriculture # Aftab Ahmad Pirzada, Secretary Live stock and dairy development

Geography

The Saraikistan Qaumi Council demanded the creation of Saraikistan province by merging 24 districts in South Punjab and 2 districts in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

(Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts, there 70 percent of the people speaks Seraiki). The Main Political parties

, PPP and PML(N) have difference on the geography of Saraikistan. The PPP supports the formation of the South province by merging 14 districts of Punjab and 2 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The

supports the formation of the South Punjab province by merging 11 districts South Punjab only. The PML(N) supports the formation of two provinces in South Punjab - the

Bahawalpur Province Bahawalpur Province ( ur, ) is the name of a proposed province consisting of the state of Bahawalpur in Pakistan. It was recommended by the parliamentary committee on new provinces in January 2013, to be created in the southernmost region of Pa ...

and another South Punjab province containing Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan divisions.

Administration Division

The province would have three administrative divisions and 14 districts:

Demographics

Language

Saraiki-speakers by Pakistani District - 2017 Census

The major native language spoken in the South Punjab is Saraiki and mostly spoken in most parts of South Punjab, Punjabi also popular in eastern part of Bahawalpur Division, Urdu is widely used as a lingua franca in official.

Religion

Saraiki, Punjabi and

Baloch people The Baloch or Baluch ( bal, بلۏچ, Balòc) are an Iranian peoples, Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region, located at the southeasternmost edge of the Iranian plateau, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afgh ...

in South Punjab believe Islam, most are

Sunnis Sunni Islam () is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia ...

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Proposed provinces and territories of Pakistan Provincial disputes in Pakistan Regions of Pakistan