Though the need as well as importance of making the new provinces cannot be denied, political structure, geographical boundaries, cultural and ethnic identities of the proposed provinces are the major hindrance in realizing the dream.
The discussion of new provinces in the media has been started once again, which indicates that the authoritative circles of the country want to know the thoughts of the people on the formation of new provinces.
But there is a dearth of extraordinary exercise based on the patience, ratiocination and endurance on national level that is required to finish these contentions. There is not any doubt that the big states were divided into administrative units according to modern state craft to achieve the target of organized governance. In these countries these units of the state were given constitutional, financial and administrative authority according to the needs so that the common people may be included in the decision making and the impartial division of the national resources may be carried out.
We can take the precedent of our next door neighbor India, which has 28 states (provinces) and eight units that come directly under the central government despite the fact that it has a lot of ethnic. political and religious controversies. At the time of independence India had only nine states, however the division of states was based on historical and political reservations in India.
In the current scenario, delay in the division of Pakistan, which has papulation of 240 million, into balanced administrative units would be unjustified. The making of new provinces would had been completed many years ago, but now to do the needful is the need of the hour as it is never too late to start moving in the positive direction.
But a balanced approach is required for the dialogue process on this sensitive issue in the best interest of national integrity. There is an old debate to form three more provinces in the country that is the Southern Punjab, which includes Multan and Bahawalpur divisions. Though the PTI’s government had established a separate civil secretariat at Multan, where an Additional Chief Secretary is looking after the affairs, practically no legislation was done in this regard.
Similarly, the Zardari led PPP government gave some basic rights and authorities to Gilgit Baltistan but by only calling the chief executive of GB as Chief Minister is not enough as without a proper provincial assembly and giving representation in the parliament, the status of province cannot be described.
Likewise another region, the Hazara division is in the discussion to be made a separate province. In the past, the driving spirit of the Hazara province movement was a elderly leader named Baba Haider Zaman , but after his death , the drive was almost over.
But the political parties are not in the favour of making new provinces just for the political sake due to the reason that they think that their vote bank would be divided in new provinces. To bring harmony, it has become necessary that all parties’ conferences should be convened and all the political parties should be invited without any discrimination to discuss the making of the new provinces.