Pakistan's lawmakers revive debate over creation of new provinces amid unemployment, inflation: Report

Islamabad: Amid rising inflation, unemployment, worsening public services, and uneven distribution of basic amenities, the political class of Pakistan has once again begun constitutional debate over the creation of new provinces and administrative units, with authorities presenting the move as a solution to the governance crisis, but also serving as a convenient distraction from the failures that common people face each day, according to a report.

The call for the creation of new provinces in Pakistan is not entirely without merit. Pakistan has a population of more than 250 million people, and many of its provinces are larger, more populous and more difficult to govern than the entire nation, according to the report in Maldives Insight.

Advocates said that smaller administrative units would bring government closer to people, improve service delivery and make state institutions more responsive. Supporters across the political spectrum have highlighted bureaucratic inefficiencies, weak local administration and failure of provincial governments to effectively manage vast territories. Decentralisation could improve governance in Pakistan.

"Yet what is striking about the current debate is that it is taking place in a political environment where even existing governance structures are failing to function effectively. Across Pakistan, millions of citizens are not demanding new maps or provincial boundaries. They are demanding electricity, jobs, affordable food, functioning schools, reliable hospitals, clean drinking water, paved roads, and responsive public institutions. These are not constitutional questions. They are governance questions. Even participants in the televised debates, be it on national news channels or video blogs, inadvertently expose this contradiction," Anas mentioned in the Maldives Insight report.

Lawmakers in Pakistan have contended that governance failures justify the setting up of new administrative units. However, they admit that local government systems are either weak, underfunded, or completely absent.

"If governments have been unable or unwilling to empower elected local bodies, what confidence can citizens have that merely creating new provinces will suddenly transform service delivery? Viral videos of roads being built around utility poles, delayed infrastructure projects, incomplete urban development schemes, bureaucratic disputes between provincial and federal agencies, and years-long administrative paralysis are not the result of provinces being too large," Anas said in the report.

"They are symptoms of institutional dysfunction. Dividing a province does not automatically create competent governance, just as drawing a new boundary does not generate accountability. The debate also exposes a deeper political paradox. Those advocating new provinces present them as a cure for poor governance," he added.

In July, Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that the country's current governance system has collapsed and is unable to resolve the issues faced by the country.

In his address at the Pakistan Economic Summit, Naqvi called for talks among political parties to introduce reforms in the current governance system and proposed the creation of new provinces and bringing administrative reforms.

"The system we are living under has collapsed. Problems cannot be solved through it," Pakistani daily Dawn quoted Naqvi as saying.

He said that Pakistan will continue to discuss the same issues even after 10 years if this system continues and stressed that a reset was important, Dawn reported. Naqvi said that the "failed system" had continued in Pakistan for 70 years.

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