New Provinces Debate Gains Momentum

Ruling party in Sindh, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which has been in power for the last 16 years, has said that it will not allow the partition of Sindh province at any cost

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies have already passed resolutions supporting the creation of new provinces or administrative units to improve governance and the quality of public services in Pakistan.

However, the Sindh Assembly has opposed the idea on the assembly floor. The ruling party in Sindh, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which has been in power for the last 16 years, has said that it will not allow the partition of Sindh province at any cost.

However, some sources claim that PPP’s main leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari, is currently on a visit to European countries.

Political leaders are unhappy with Pakistan’s powerful establishment, particularly over its reported push to redraw the country’s provincial boundaries and create additional provinces.

The debate over the creation of new provinces in Pakistan has intensified, with political leaders expressing sharply differing views on whether the country’s administrative structure should be reorganised or more provinces should be created to improve the quality of public services.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal this week also proposed creating 15 provinces or empowering 160 district governments. He also argued that Pakistan needed a major overhaul of its governance system to reverse deteriorating socio-economic indicators.

Before Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also raised the issue and called for the creation of more provinces, saying that the existing system had completely collapsed.

Creating new provinces would require constitutional amendments and broad political agreement on issues including political representation and the distribution of federal revenues.

There are a number of ideas on social media for creating more provinces, one of the biggest being a proposal to hold a referendum. This, its proponents argue, would overcome the need for constitutional amendments.

The second-largest party in Sindh, MQM-P, supports the creation of new provinces or administrative units across Pakistan, not just in Sindh. Chief of MQM-P Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said Pakistan’s growing population and existing governance problems require administrative restructuring.

The party says that provinces should be created primarily on the basis of administrative, population and governance needs, rather than ethnic or linguistic considerations. MQM-P has said that the case for additional provinces is particularly strong in Sindh, reflecting its longstanding demand for a separate administrative province for the province’s urban areas.

MQM-P has also proposed holding a countrywide referendum on the creation of new provinces. Siddiqui and senior leader Farooq Sattar have called for public consultation on the issue.

The party has also announced plans to approach other political parties for a “grand national dialogue” to develop consensus on the creation of new provinces.

A senior federal health minister from MQM-P, Mustafa Kamal, said Pakistan’s current provincial structure is no longer capable of meeting the needs of its growing population, making the creation of new provinces on administrative grounds inevitable.

Kamal has specifically said that creating administrative units in Sindh is “not against Sindhis, it is for Sindhis”, arguing that the objective is to give people greater control over their own affairs.

In a statement on social media platform X, President of the Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) Abdul Aleem Khan today welcomed Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal’s recent advocacy for new provinces, describing it as a positive development that political leaders from different parties are taking ownership of an important national issue.

He also said new provinces should not be created on linguistic or cultural grounds but according to administrative requirements.

“Political point-scoring will neither take the country forward nor resolve people’s problems,” Aleem Khan said, adding that political parties should take the debate towards a logical conclusion.

However, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah has described the debate over new provinces as premature, saying the PML-N does not currently consider it the appropriate time to pursue the matter. He said any major decision would require parliamentary consideration and political consensus.

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