Local MPs urged to support Bahawalpur province.

LAHORE -- The parliamentarians elected from Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan districts have been urged to support the cause of reinstating the status of province for the defunct Bahawalpur state.

The members of the Senate, National Assembly as well as Punjab Assembly who got elected from the former princely state of Bahawalpur must work for winning the status of a province for the three districts that constituted the defunct state, Tehreek-i-Istiqlal President Rehmat Khan Wardag demanded here on Sunday.

The party has been suggesting dividing the country into 20 provinces since 1979 and since then it has been nominating a separate provincial chief for the region.

Lauding the efforts being made by federal minister Tariq Bashir Cheema for the cause, Mr Wardag said all other elected representatives must join him, making the carving out of Bahawalpur province as their priority and that compromising on the cause would be in fact betrayal with the people of the region.

He said the written agreement struck with the then Nawab of Bahawalpur while merging the state into the...