New Provinces Won't Be Enough

صرف نئے صوبوں کا قیام کافی نہیں

New Provinces Won't Be Enough

There are several demands for new provinces in Pakistan, but the rationale behind them, as well as the opposition to them, is multifaceted. These include administrative, economic-development, and identity-based arguments, as well as concerns about implementation and costs. Administratively, Pakistan's large provinces are too big, as anyone who has taken the six-hour drive from Rajanpur or Rojhan to Lahore to complete a government form can testify. Economically, smaller administrative units do not get their share. Multan, Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions of Punjab provide the country with much of its cotton, wheat, and mangoes, but lag behind in development indicators. Finally, some groups want separate provinces for cultural reasons. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was renamed in 2010, while residents of Hazara division, who speak Hindko, genuinely want it to become a separate province. In Pakistan's parliament, several serious proposals for new provinces have been made. One of them, South Punjab, appears closest to realisation, as it has the support of the country's largest political parties. Southern Punjab, comprising 11 districts of the Multan, Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions, has been proposed several times. The establishment of civil secretariats in Bahawalpur and Multan was a step towards that goal, but has been criticised as merely creating another secretariat without budgetary autonomy, as official documents still have to be approved in Lahore. There is also a demand for a separate Hazara province. Hazara residents, whose cultural identity is different from that of the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, protested in 2010 when NWFP was renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They want a separate province with its capital at Abbottabad, covering five or seven districts of Hazara division. The federal parliament established a committee to address Hazara residents' grievances, but the issue has since languished, even though the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly unanimously passed a resolution supporting a separate province. Potohar, covering Rawalpindi division, is another region whose residents want a separate province. They cite their unique culture and economic underdevelopment as reasons for becoming a separate administrative unit. Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has floated the contested idea of partitioning Sindh, either into Karachi and Hyderabad or Karachi and Lower Sindh. Its rationale was essentially administrative: Karachi, a sprawling metropolitan area of 20 million people, generates nearly 60% of Pakistan's tax revenues and is in dire need of decentralisation. At present, Karachi is administered by several different provincial government departments. Sindhi nationalists, however, believe that splitting Sindh would damage the province's cultural heritage and have opposed the idea on the grounds of provincial integrity, arguing that Sindh has existed as a region long before Pakistan's independence. Karachi's administrative challenges are serious, but Sindhi nationalists' fears are not irrational or out of context either. The rationale behind most of these demands, with the exception of Hazara, essentially boils down to the fact that these are large administrative units distant from their capitals that contribute disproportionately to Pakistan's economy without receiving much in return. However, even if all these demands were granted, they would hardly address Pakistan's broader challenges of decentralising power.