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PPP doesn't believe in dividing Punjab: Fauzia

LAHORE - Central Secretary Information Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Fauzia Wahab said on Thursday that PPP did not believe in division of Punjab and would take disciplinary action against those party MPAs who had supported the demand for a separate province for southern Punjab.
“The PPP believes in four federating units of Pakistan and respects them”, she said while talking to reporters after chairing a meeting of party’s information secretaries in Faisal Town.
She said none of PPP men ever raised the issue at any party meeting. “It were rather people like Jehangir Tareen, Muhammad Ali Durrani and Javed Hashmi who talked of a separate province at the first place”, she observed, adding that PPP had 22 MNAs from south Punjab, and none of them ever came up with such a demand.
Replying to a question, she said the PPP party would take disciplinary action against those MPAs who supported the demand for Seraiki province in violation of party policy.
The PPP secretary information termed the demand for a new province a conspiracy to divert government’s attention from real issues facing the country and said the federal government would enhance development funds for southern Punjab, and would also request Punjab government to do the same to address genuine grievances of people belonging to the region.
She said her party had only one ‘sardar’ [leader] (Asif Zardari), who believed in four provinces, which was united under his leadership.
When asked as to why she did not support the idea of a powerful prime minister vis-a-vis the president, she said media twisted her earlier statement, because she had only talked of balance of power without making any mention of the prime minister or the president.
Talking about the issue of scarcity of water and electricity in the country, she said government was not oblivious to the problem and planning to build 12 new dams at different locations on the river system to generate electricity. 
The power generation plants gifted by UAE Government to Pakistan would be installed at Multan and Faisalabad, she told newsmen.
She said Pakistan would get 750 million cubic feet gas from Iran that would be help generating 5,500 MW of electricity.

The Nation:Friday,July 3, 2009