When one province can veto reform, hoard resources, and dictate national direction, the federation is no longer federal, it is captive.
Pakistan prides itself on being a federation, yet the lived reality is starkly different. With 173 seats in the National Assembly, Punjab enjoys a structural veto over constitutional amendments, budgets, and national direction. What should have been representation has mutated into hegemony. The result is not balance, but a parliamentary monopoly that corrodes institutions and breeds resentment in every other province.
Saraikistan, the Saraiki belt, long denied recognition, now offers the key to breaking this deadlock. The creation of Saraikistan is not a parochial demand; it is the most urgent structural reform to rescue Pakistan’s democracy. By diluting Punjab’s dominance, Saraikistan would restore parity to the federation and open the door to genuine national leadership.
The Federation’s Captivity
This imbalance is not about one province developing faster than others; it is about one province institutionalizing its supremacy. With 173 seats out of 336, Punjab alone determines whether constitutional amendments succeed or fail. It shapes the NFC Award. It controls the contours of every national budget. And within Punjab itself, privilege is further centralized in Lahore, leaving Saraikistan trapped in poverty despite being the land that feeds the nation.
This is not majority rule. It is what political science calls a tyranny of the majority, and tyranny by any other name remains tyranny.
Why Saraikistan Matters for Everyone
The resistance to Saraikistan is often dressed up as a concern for cost or efficiency. In truth, it is about preserving Punjab’s monopoly. And yet Saraikistan would strengthen, not weaken, the federation:
- Diluting Punjab’s veto power by reducing its stranglehold in the National Assembly.
- Empowering the Senate to play the balancing role envisioned by the Constitution.
- Assuring smaller provinces that Pakistan can evolve to honor diversity instead of suffocating it.
- Allowing genuine leadership rotation, breaking the pattern where every prime minister must either come from Punjab or bend to its dictates.
Saraikistan is not secessionist. It is federalist. By liberating Saraikistan, the Saraiki belt, it liberates every province from a future where one unit rules forever.
The Human Cost of Monopoly
This monopoly carries devastating human consequences. Lahore’s Orange Line Metro cost more than Rs. 300 billion, while the combined annual development budget for Multan, Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions was less than a tenth of that. Saraikistan, the Saraiki belt grows the cotton, mangoes, and citrus that sustain Pakistan’s exports, yet the banks, factories, and universities remain locked in the Lahore–Faisalabad corridor.
The message to Saraikis is unmistakable: your land may feed the federation, but your people will remain invisible within it. This is not simply uneven development; it is structural capture.
Naming and Dignity
Even the name “Saraikistan” has been targeted by critics who brand it “linguistic.” The irony is staggering. Punjab is named after Punjabi, Sindh after Sindhi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Pashto, and Balochistan after Balochi. Across the world, from Japan to France, nations derive their names from language or ethnicity. To single out Saraikistan after Saraiki as illegitimate is not logic but prejudice. The truth is unambiguous: the province, when created, will be called Saraikistan. Anything else is bias masquerading as compromise.
A National Choice, Not a Regional One
This is not just about Saraikistan. It is about Pakistan’s survival as a federation. Monopolies fracture under the weight of their own injustice. Pakistan already paid this price in 1971, when the denial of diversity tore the country apart. To repeat the same hubris is to invite history’s revenge.
The choice is clear. Preserve Punjab’s monopoly and watch the federation ossify into fiction, or create Saraikistan and give Pakistan a second life. For Balochistan, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the message would be transformative: that the federation can reform itself rather than suffocate its units.
Breaking the Chains
Saraikistan is more than a province. It is a promise, that no single unit will forever hold the federation hostage, that dignity denied for decades will finally be restored, that Pakistan will at last function as a true federation.
The time for cosmetic relief has passed. No more commissions, no more hollow packages, no more Lahore-centric promises. What Pakistan needs is courage.
Saraikistan is that courage. Saraikistan is that reform. Saraikistan is that future. Saraikistan is the secure future and the soul of the federation.
And so I raise the only slogan that matters: Saraikistan for Pakistan!
