Southern Punjab -A neglected chunk of human and capital resource

Muhammad Mubasir Khan
Southern Punjab__one of Pakistan’s most fertile land endowed with the natural resources, having the extraordinary potential for agriculture and farming with deligent and painstaking people has unfortunately so far been failed to get the attention of the policy makers.The region is having an ample potential for tourism with a lot of Shrines and Tombs in Multan which attract the devotees as well as tourists from across country and beyond the borders. The region comprises mainly the divisions of Multan,Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and districts of Bhakkar and Jhang as well .It is 57 % of the total area of Punjab and 36 % of total population with 35 % of Punjab’s total budget being spent on it which though seems evident nowhere . According to the newspaper reports , development programmes regarding the Heath, Education, Social Services , Research and Development and Rural development started many times on camera but unfortunately due to little interest of the concerned authorities, the people of Southern Punjab never saw the culmination rather I should say even the start of those projects .A very recent example is the Murad Raas’s inaguratin of First Transgender School in Multan on 7th of July 2021, with the sky high promises of extending this very third gender developmental programme to all other areas of Punjab as well.But the ground reality is that everything is like before,rather more worse than before.One more example is that Punjab Government earlier approved Thal university at LIVESTOCK EXPERIMENT STATION Rakh GHULAMAN, (District Bhakkar, Tehsil Kallurkot) but later it was shifted to bhakkar city. Approving a university simply means a new university will be established but our corrupt politicians have sweard not to take a single step towards the development of backward areas . Thal university was shifted to bhakkar city for only one reason that it would not have to be built . After shifting in bhakkar,Thal university simply overtook the Sub- Campus Bhakkar of university of Sargodha. Now ,if renaming the already existing things or infrastructure a different title is aiming at the development then development will follow in the hallucinations .Doesn’t those poor people need the hospitals for treatment. Reportedly, about 17 patients including 5 pregnant women of delivery case died on the way when they were referred from RHC Jandanwala to DHQ bhakkar just for the reason that there was only one ambulance which was not available on the spot .Due to longer distance of 110 km in between the RHC (Rural Health Center) Jandanwala and DHQ hospital bhakkar ,those patients died before reaching the District Head Quarter Hospital Bhakkar. The government once also approved a medical college for Bhakkar on 13th of December 2012 with proposed name of Thal Medical college but again it was just a headline and no one knows why even after 10 years being passed this plan has not been actualized .One reason is that the MNAs and MPAs of the backward areas like Southern Punjab after being elected usually remain in Islamabad in their luxurious homes and rarely go back to the people living in the slums on whom’s vote they got elected earlier. So when one is not even living in a system how can he represent the system and how will he raise voice for the community which he is not a part of and the issues he has not experienced. Another reason is the influence of tribal enmities on the voting behaviour of the people of backward areas .Due to tribal enmities,they have voted in favour of a particular candidate for a longer time who gives them political and administrial concessions regarding their cases . For a family,with its sons and guardians in jail , no favour can be higher and more promising than easing their release.So politicians and administrators have so far learnt to beguile and get the vote of the innocent ignorant people of backward areas by offering them such kind of favours. Southern Punjab with its green lands , massive potential for agriculture in Bhakkar,Jhang , Multan,Bhawalpur, coal and other mineral resources mainly in DG Khan , wide scale informal economy of domesticated animals and vegetation and human resource in the form of expert labor and competent youth is questioning the priorities of the policy makers .By efficient utilization of its mineral resources, more focus on agriculture sector , documentation of wide scale informal economy and optimal engagement of human resource , southern Punjab can help Pakistan increase its GDP . This in turn will help Pakistan overcome the grave BOP problems and will also avoid the danger of default which is currently acting as the Damocles sword for Pakistan .