South Punjab Province movement

The South Punjab province movement, which largely overlaps with Saraikistan province movement, is the proposal to create a new province in Pakistan by carving out the southern regions of Punjab. Multan is usually proposed as the capital of the new province.

In the political discourse within Pakistan, South Punjab generally refers to the three southern divisions of Punjab: Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan. The largest language of the three divisions is Saraiki, an Indo-Aryan language within Lahnda group, although some districts within South Punjab (notably Khanewal, Vehari and Bahawalpur) are Punjabi majority. Conversely, some districts of Central Punjab (Mianwali and Bhakkar) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (Dera Ismail Khan) are not part of South Punjab despite having Saraiki majority, and hence, not within scope of movement.

The movement for Saraiki province began in the 1970s when Saraiki-speakers demanded that the Saraiki language be officially recognized. The Pakistani government recognized the Saraiki language as a separate language under President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, although he kept the provincial movement in check. In 1989, Taj Langah founded the Pakistan Saraiki Party (PSP) and remained its president until his death in 2013. He was one of the foremost figures of the Saraiki province movement.

The region of southern Punjab comprises the Bahawalpur, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions. The proposed province would form about 52 percent of the total area and almost 40 percent of the population of the current Punjab province.