A politically sensitive debate has reignited in Pakistan over whether its four-province system can effectively govern a country of around 260 million people. Ahsan Iqbal, minister for planning and development, recently called for a national political debate on administrative reform. He proposed creating 12 to 15 new provinces or setting up 160 empowered district governments to improve governance and the delivery of public services.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who first raised the idea of an administrative "reset" in July, said on Saturday that any new administrative units should be created with public support. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, meanwhile, has called for greater decentralization and devolution of power to the grassroots. Despite the growing calls to create new provinces, no formal decision has been taken.
Even within the ruling coalition, there is disagreement over how and when such reforms should be pursued. There are also questions about whether creating smaller provinces improves governance, or whether devolving power directly to local governments would be more effective. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Pakistanis broadly agree that the country needs more responsive and effective government, but many question whether creating more provinces is the solution.
"Smaller provinces are not a substitute for empowered local governments. Even with smaller provinces, you will still need empowered local governments to make the system effective and improve service delivery to the people," Miftah Ismail, a former finance minister and economist, told DW. Supporters of creating more provinces argue that Pakistan's four existing provinces — Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan — have become too large and overly centralized.
Iqbal, the planning minister, has argued that the existing system has not delivered adequate improvements in health, education, and other social services. Interior Minister Naqvi, on the other hand, has called for an administrative structure that is better suited to Pakistan's growing population. But there is disagreement over the solution.
"Without effective local governments, whether there is one province or 25, decision-making will remain centralized at the provincial level," Abid Qaiyum Suleri, executive director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank, told DW. He said any proposal for new provinces or administrative units should be assessed against potential improvements in local tax collection and the costs of creating new provincial institutions, including secretariats, assemblies, and bureaucracies. Suleri stressed that it should also be examined whether such changes would deliver justice and public services more effectively.
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