Pakistan’s provinces have become too big to deliver and too powerful to devolve. The 18th Amendment moved authority from Islamabad to Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. The 18th Amendment did not move authority to the citizen.
Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta became mini-Islamabads. Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta control money, police, education, health, water, sanitation, local government and development funds -- but citizens still cannot hold anyone clearly accountable.
Red alert: Pakistan’s real problem is not that Pakistan has too few provinces -- the real problem is that Pakistan has a provincial layer that blocks real devolution.Strip away the rhetoric: One federation for national policy. And 169 districts for service delivery.
No provincial capitals. No provincial chief ministers. No provincial cabinets. No provincial assemblies. No provincial secretariats. Please note: combined provincial current expenditure is Rs10.1 trillion.
The bottom line: National policy at the centre -- and public service delivery at the district level.Consider these eight facts: Schools are district services. Clinics are district services. Water is district service. Sanitation is district service. Local roads are district services. Solid waste is district service. Birth and death certificates are local services. Building permissions are local services.
Look closer: If the service is local, the authority must be local. Four more facts: Lahore is 545km from Rajanpur. Karachi is 406km from Thar. Quetta is 908km from Gwadar. Peshawar is 352 from Chitral.
Call it what it is: The citizen lives in a district, not in a provincial secretariat. Federal government: National defence, currency, foreign policy, taxation framework, macroeconomy and national infrastructure.
District and city governments: Schools, clinics, water, sanitation, roads, land use, local policing and municipal services.New Zealand has no intermediate state or province with legislative power -- one parliament, strong local councils and clear local responsibility for water, roads, land use, planning and municipal services. It is consistently ranked among the world’s better-governed countries.
Rwanda stripped provinces of real political weight and pushed implementation through district-level administration. Whatever one may say about its political model, its administrative lesson is clear: disciplined districts can deliver.
Denmark is another strong example: municipalities are the real engines of welfare delivery. Estonia offers a modern version of the same idea -- a digital state, a strong centre and empowered municipalities. Latvia, Lithuania and even the UK moving to get rid of the political middleman.
The world’s lesson is clear: maps do not deliver. Capitals do not deliver. Local governments deliver -- when they have money, authority and accountability. Pakistan should move from four provinces to zero provinces. That does not mean weakening the federation. It means strengthening the citizen. One federation. Powerful districts. Zero provinces.
The writer is an Islamabad-based columnist.
