O matter how strongly the PPP, a key coalition partner, wishes to see it buried, the push for new administrative units and provinces seems to be picking up steam once again. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif brought the issue into the limelight on Sunday, telling an interviewer that the country could have as many as 12 new provinces if the exercise were driven by administrative needs rather than ethnic, linguistic, or political considerations. Yet in Pakistan, redrawn boundaries always carry ethnic and political weight. Speculation about a possible administrative restructuring has intensified of late, with talk of it soon being accomplished through a 28th amendment to the Constitution. It is also suggested that while the amendment may be fast-tracked, perhaps wrapped up within the year, its actual implementation will be deferred until after the next general election because of the formidable legal and administrative challenges involved in redistributing the state’s resources equitably.
But if the implementation can wait, why not the legislation? The government may be tempted to push ahead while it can still count on a majority in parliament, but a majority alone is not a consensus. A proposal of such immense national import demands nothing less. The Election Commission’s botched conduct of the 2024 general election has also left serious, lingering doubts about how far the current legislature represents the public will doubts that might taint any constitutional change of this magnitude that it passes. It would, therefore, be a much wiser move, politically speaking, to take up any debate on administrative restructuring again after the next general election. In the interim, parliament should pursue electoral reforms with the opposition to ensure that the commission does not repeat its 2024 mistakes, so that the next election earns the public’s trust and yields a legislature whose mandate is beyond doubt.
Until then, the federal and provincial governments should at least make an effort to revive the local government structure and give it a fair chance to prove its efficacy as a means of public service delivery. Most arguments in favour of new administrative units circle back to a few central ideas, chief among which is the failure of provincial governments to ensure that resources allocated to them reach the people. The LG system was designed to be that last-mile tier of governance that would make this possible, but, sadly, successive civilian governments have failed to operationalise it effectively, preferring instead to concentrate administrative, political and financial power in a few provincial centres. Population growth and internal migration have sharply increased pressures on existing administrative centres in recent decades, but empowered LGs can redistribute that burden without redrawing provincial boundaries. It is up to the political leadership to choose between these two paths.