By Anwar Ullah
Pakistan’s debate over the creation of new provinces has entered a more consequential phase. What was once largely an electoral slogan associated with South Punjab, Hazara, Bahawalpur or Karachi has increasingly become part of a broader discussion about governance, administrative capacity, political representation and the future of Pakistan’s federal structure. The latest debate is particularly significant because the government is reportedly considering different models of territorial reorganization, including new provinces, additional administrative units and a stronger local-government system. The question is no longer simply whether Pakistan needs more provinces. The more important question is what problems are new provinces actually intended to solve and are provinces the most effective instrument for solving it.
Pakistan currently governs a population of roughly a quarter of a billion people through only four constitutional provinces. This concentration of population and administrative authority has created a persistent governance dilemma. Punjab alone contains around 56 percent of the national population while Balochistan accounts for only about 5 percent. The imbalance is not merely demographic; it affects political representation, administrative reach, resource distribution and the ability of provincial governments to respond effectively to geographically distant populations. Pakistan’s large provinces have become increasingly difficult to administer effectively. Peripheral regions often remain physically distant from provincial capitals, making access to government institutions and public services difficult. It links the resulting grievances to underdevelopment, unequal political representation, ineffective administration and uneven resource distribution.
A citizen does not necessarily demand a province simply because he speaks a different language. He may demand one because the provincial capital is hundreds of kilometers away, because public services are inaccessible, because development appears concentrated elsewhere, because political representation feels inadequate or because the region believes its economic contribution is not being translated into public investment. A study found that 82.5 percent of public supported the creation of new provinces, while 77 percent believed that additional provinces could improve governance. The demand cannot simply be dismissed as ethnic politics: administrative, demographic and governance concerns feature prominently in public perceptions.
Pakistan does not need to invent a model from scratch. India provides the most relevant comparison because it shares Pakistan’s colonial history, federal structure and enormous linguistic and cultural diversity. India has repeatedly reorganized its states. The creation of states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand in 2000 demonstrated that territorial reorganization can respond simultaneously to demands for political representation, administrative accessibility and economic development. India’s experience shows that new administrative units can strengthen governance and in some circumstances, help address insurgency and regional grievances.
Creating a province is not the same thing as creating effective governance. A new province requires a political and administrative infrastructure: a legislature, executive, secretariat, courts and numerous departments. The larger the number of proposed provinces are, the greater the institutional and financial cost. If a new province merely replaces one distant provincial bureaucracy with another distant provincial bureaucracy, very little changes for the ordinary citizen. A citizen in a remote district does not necessarily need another chief minister. He needs an accessible local government, functioning schools and hospitals, reliable water and sanitation, an accountable police, efficient municipal services, local roads and transport, predictable development funding and elected representatives with actual authority.
Every proposed province should be assessed against a common set of criteria like administrative and economic viability, population and geography, fiscal sustainability, cultural and linguistic considerations, security implications and local government integration. A successful territorial reform would not fragment Pakistan. Properly designed, it could strengthen the federation by giving neglected regions a greater stake in it, improving representation, reducing administrative distance and addressing the grievances that feed regional alienation. But poorly designed reform could simply reproduce the same governance failures on a smaller map. Pakistan therefore needs neither a reflexive defence of the existing four-province structure nor an indiscriminate multiplication of provinces.
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