Clinical observation: the system has failed to deliver for the common Pakistani. Diagnosis: the system has collapsed. Prescription: new provinces? This is what new provinces would mean: 33 new governors, 33 new chief ministers, 33 new cabinets, 33 new assemblies, 33 new high courts, 33 new chief secretaries, 33 new secretariats, 33 new IGs, 33 new residences, hundreds of thousands of new cars (the government already has 85,000), new protocol and trillions of rupees of new expenditure.
Pakistan already spends roughly Rs3 trillion running one federal government and four provincial governments. Do we now want to create 33 new provincial governments and then spend trillions more on funding 33 new political and bureaucratic machines?
Would new provinces automatically deliver schools, hospitals, roads, sanitation and clean water? No. Structural change alone does not cure institutional failure. If accountability remains weak, funds continue to be misused, elites capture new structures and delivery remains poor, then new provinces will only create new capitals for old failures.
Red alert: Pakistan does not need more rulers; it needs better service delivery. Schools are local. Clinics are local. Water is local. Sanitation is local. Solid waste is local. Public transport is local. Street policing is local. Birth certificates, death certificates, building permissions and land-use decisions are local. Conclusion: the answer is local government, not new provinces.
Article 140A of the constitution already requires every province to establish local governments and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to local representatives. Implement Article 140A in letter and spirit. Make every local government publish funds received, projects approved, names of contractors, timelines, physical progress and outcomes.
No new provinces, please. New provinces will simply produce new capitals, new cabinets and old failures. Bring a Local Government Reform Package instead that includes constitutional protection for local governments, fixed tenure, predictable fiscal transfers, administrative authority, public dashboards and direct accountability.
Yes, Punjab is too big. Sindh is too centralised. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is administratively complex. Balochistan is geographically vast. I accept the diagnosis. I disagree with the prescription. The cure is not new provinces. The cure is empowered local government.
Yes, the current model has failed. But new provinces are not a cure. Pakistan needs a cheaper, faster solution: local governments with constitutional protection, predictable money, real authority and public dashboards.
Pakistan’s problem is not that we have too few provinces. Pakistan’s problem is that power – and money – stops at provincial capitals.
Yes, new provinces will change maps. Local governments change lives. New provinces will add new offices. Local governments will put power closer to citizens. New provinces will redraw boundaries. Local governments will repair streets, schools and clinics. New provinces will produce new chief ministers. Local governments will produce cleaner water, better sanitation and faster response.
Do not replace four mini-Islamabads with 33 mini-Islamabads. Take power to the citizen. Not to another capital.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. He tweets/posts @saleemfarrukh and can be reached at: [email protected]
