Poor infrastructure making Pakistan's South Punjab plum picking for Talibanisation

Lahore, June 20 (ANI): Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA from Rahimyar Khan, Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mehmood, has said that the provincial government needs to quickly build schools, hospitals and roads in South Punjab or it will become the next region in Pakistan to be wracked by insurgency.

"The situation in my area has become very bad. The insurgency that we see in the Frontier, in Sindh, in Balochistan ... now we're hearing the same kind of things in South Punjab," Mehmood said during Friday's budget session in the Punjab Assembly.

Memood further said that South Punjab lacked schools and colleges.

"The disparity between the southern and northern parts of the province could be gauged by the fact that Rahimyar Khan, with a population of 3.6 million, had just four degree colleges each for boys and girls, while Gujranwala, with a population of 2.6 million, had 16 colleges for girls and 21 for boys" the Daily Times quoted Memood, as saying.

Mehmood blamed the lack of work and education opportunities as the principal reason behind people joining the Taliban in NWFP, and claimed that the Tribal Areas and South Punjab were heading the same way.

He further highlighted that the provincial budget announced last Tuesday should have included at least Rs 50 billion to build infrastructure and schools in the region.

Mehmood warned that the time has come to take initiatives in South Punjab to stop the situation from further deterioration. (ANI)