The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday urged that discussions on creating new administrative units should not be pursued further.
The statement came a day after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi argued that Pakistan’s current governance structure had failed to meet the country’s needs. He called for sweeping administrative reforms, including the establishment of new administrative units.
Addressing an event in Islamabad, Naqvi said the existing system was no longer capable of resolving the country’s problems and warned that without structural reforms, Pakistan would continue to face the same challenges for years to come. He stressed the need to move towards new administrative units, regardless of whether they were designated as provinces or given another title.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, the interior minister said the efforts of Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, would not produce lasting results unless political leaders united to reform the country’s governance framework.
Naqvi maintained that meaningful progress depended on political consensus, saying the country’s leadership must work together to improve the system if Pakistan was to overcome its long-standing governance issues.
Responding to his statement, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman advised against expanding the discussion on administrative restructuring during an appearance on a programme on a private TV channel.
She said no formal proposal regarding the creation of new administrative units had been presented to the PPP, adding that it would be better not to prolong the debate at this stage.
Rehman also remarked that the timing was not appropriate for such a discussion, emphasizing that while the PPP believes in resolving national issues through political dialogue, the immediate priority should be improving governance and strengthening administrative performance.
