Today, the country is witnessing a raging debate over the creation of new administrative units or provinces, as supporters of the idea seek to highlight the significance, and indeed the indispensability, of doing so because the existing governance and administrative system has collapsed.
On the contrary, detractors of the idea of system collapse, and more narrowly of the need to form new administrative units by dismantling the existing four provinces, complain and fear that doing so would inflict irreparable damage on the state, the union and the federation of Pakistan. While there is little substance in the arguments against forming new administrative units, and apart from certain ethno-linguistic political groups calling themselves “nationalist” parties in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, which have been completely rejecting the idea of forming new provinces, the million-dollar question remains: why could new administrative units not be formed? Has it been the influence of these small local parties that prevented the state from creating more administrative units, or are there other reasons for this failure?
A closer look reveals that, fundamentally, it has been the substandard quality of leadership in the country that has failed to understand the critical need to reshape the federation to make it viable and sustainable. All the major political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which have been forming governments at the Centre and in most provinces, have at various times shown their readiness to create more provinces, but this has largely been mere lip service. In essence, they have not been in favour of creating more administrative units or, more significantly, dividing their political forts, which in the case of PML-N is Punjab and in the case of PPP is Sindh. As these political parties have effectively been, or have become, provincial parties, they see their political survival threatened by the creation of new provinces.
The PTI case in this regard has been particularly strange because, despite the party’s phenomenal popularity and its unprecedented third government in a row in KP, the party has been broadly popular in all parts of Pakistan. However, its failure to cross the Rubicon on the issue of creating more federating units during its government at the Centre from August 2018 to April 2022 was surprising. This situation proves one point: the lack of political shrewdness or acumen and, more importantly, the absence of political will to take a decisive step towards creating more administrative units to make the federation workable and sustainable.
It may be mentioned that the debate over creating more provinces, which has been making the rounds in the country’s power and policy circles for a long time, had slowly and gradually vanished into thin air, only to resurface last year with certain civil society organisations reigniting the debate. Obviously, the powers-that-be in the country may have encouraged or supported these civil society organisations to generate debate on the issue, but the fact remains that the governance and administrative system in the country has collapsed. Powerful figures such as Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi may be admitting or realising it today, but we have been declaring it for more than ten years in these columns and, in this regard, suggesting the carving out of new administrative units purely on the basis of rationality rather than emotional considerations such as ethno-nationalist sentiments.
However, the perennial problem with our nation, media and leadership is that they are reactive rather than proactive regarding the different issues and problems faced by the state and society, whether terrorism, extremism, human rights, environmental degradation or foreign policy. Consequently, we have repeatedly found ourselves napping in the face of great challenges and national emergencies. The malfunctioning of Pakistan’s political and administrative system has partly been due to the huge size of the administrative units or provinces, which were created on the basis of political expediency or ethnicity by our colonial rulers and their Pakistani successors. At that time, their formation along these lines might have been understandable or contingent upon the circumstances. However, with the ever-growing complexity of society and development, and the ever-increasing problems associated with them, profound new challenges have emerged over the decades, requiring efficient administrative management systems.
In order to make the state and its administrative machinery and apparatus responsive to the growing needs of an ever-increasing population, there ought to be changes in the administrative structures and units of the country. This has not taken place, as a result of which almost all aspects of our governance are suffering, with the ultimate victims being ordinary Pakistanis. In this context, the creation of more administrative units through the division and restructuring of the existing provinces has become a cry of the time. Yet this effort continues to be blocked by seemingly superficial reasons, such as fears that it would inflame the sentiments of certain ethnic communities, particularly those after whose identity the provinces are named.
Leaders are expected to think beyond what is merely popular with people and communities; rather, they must think in terms of the survivability of the state and the solidarity of society. Therefore, such petty issues should not prevent them from taking bold steps. This is precisely the case with the creation of more provinces and administrative units in the country. Indubitably, the creation of such units is extremely necessary for the functionality of the state system and the solidarity of society, as well as for putting an end to multidimensional conflicts and administrative grievances.
Observably, the debate and initial activity over the creation of more provinces virtually die down whenever the PML-N comes into power, and the present PML-N government is a case in point. The debate has been reignited by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s statement about system collapse in early August, as the PML-N has become a politically spent force and is ready to adopt whatever line it may be asked to follow. The PPP, on the other hand, has declared that it is against the creation of new provinces, and its dominated Sindh Assembly has even passed a resolution against new provinces. Still, the debate over the formation of new administrative units has started to gain momentum, although it seems very difficult for it to reach a logical conclusion in the prevailing political situation and given the quality of the country’s leadership.
The last time the debate over forming new provinces genuinely surged was during the PPP’s stint in power from 2008 to 2013, when the discourse over having more provinces reached its peak. At that time, there were strong expectations that the debate might take a concrete shape, as the ruling PPP had indicated that the creation of a Seraiki province could be included in the party’s election manifesto for the 2013 elections. However, nothing ultimately came out of the discussion or the promises.
Significantly, at that time, the main ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the long-time Pakhtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP), through its chief Asfandyar Wali, had declared that his party would not oppose the formation of a Hazara province by separating the districts comprising Hazara Division from KP. On the other hand, the debate regarding new provinces had acquired a new but critical dimension when Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, around the same time, stated that there should be a national consensus on the creation of new federating units and that Karachi should also be made a new province.
Importantly, Sharif did not oppose the restoration of Bahawalpur State as a new province by separating it from Punjab. This was indeed a healthy political development, as the need for the formation of new provinces had been felt for a long time. The need has primarily been driven by the objective of improving administrative efficiency as well as equitably distributing national resources among various ethnic groups, communities and regions.
Today, what we need is the restarting of this healthy politics of give and take in order to reach a broad national consensus. However, the barometer for any decision-making must be the public interest, which can only be served through good governance. Good governance, in turn, is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve without viable and sustainable administrative units capable of responding effectively to the needs of their populations.
Pakistan’s federation cannot remain frozen in an administrative structure designed for vastly different demographic, economic and political circumstances. The country has grown enormously in population and complexity, while many of its administrative units have become too large to govern effectively. The answer should not be the arbitrary division of provinces for political advantage, nor should it be driven exclusively by ethnic considerations. Instead, the process must be based on administrative viability, economic sustainability, geographical coherence, equitable representation and the welfare of citizens.
The creation of new provinces should therefore be viewed not as an attack on the federation but as an effort to strengthen it. Smaller and more manageable administrative units, if properly designed and adequately empowered, can bring government closer to citizens, improve service delivery, reduce regional grievances and create a more balanced distribution of political and economic power. What Pakistan needs is not another cycle of political promises followed by paralysis, but a serious national conversation on how its federation can be made more functional, responsive and sustainable.
The political leadership must ultimately decide whether it wants to preserve existing provincial boundaries for short-term political convenience or undertake difficult structural reforms in the broader national interest. The latter course would require courage, consensus and political imagination. But without such qualities, Pakistan will continue to debate the symptoms of administrative failure while avoiding the structural reforms needed to address its causes. The time has come to revive the debate on new provinces not as an exercise in political point-scoring, but as a serious effort to make the federation work better for all Pakistanis.