ON 19 November 1863, the US President Abraham Lincoln, while addressing a gathering at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War, delivered his famous eulogy that ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’. Ever since, these words have become synonymous to democracy as the system of governance across the democratic world. The concept revolves around the word people. The people choose their representatives to form a government that is built on the pillars of human rights, equality, transparency, meritocracy, social justice, peace and security and efficient governance. People centric constitution works as the social contract between the government and the people. Older democracies seem to have matured their governance systems which could mainly be attributed to the unwavering political will, rule of law and perpetuality of electoral process, while the newer democracies are still struggling to reap the real benefits of democratic system.
Pakistan, building on the edifice of colonial masters, followed a bicameral democratic system. All the way along since independence, Pakistan has had a rollercoaster journey of democratic, authoritarian and hybrid systems and subsequent to trying a number of constitutions and legal framework orders, finally settled for the unanimously adopted constitution in 1973. Despite going through 27 constitutional amendments, the social contract seems to be devoid of providing a robust legal framework that should ensure benefits like those of Western democracies. On 30 July 2026, Pakistan’s Minister of Interior Mr Mohsin Naqvi, while addressing the Pakistan Economic Summit-2026, in Islamabad expressed the same frustration and remarked that, ‘whether you agree or not, the system we have been living under has collapsed’. His remarks triggered nationwide deliberations on an older subject that whether larger size of the administrative units (Provinces) was the major reason for poor governance? This is a significant development that deserves a little deeper dive.
As a student of political science, one can observe that academically, Pakistan has evolved a reasonably adequate governance structure, which is enshrined in its constitution as well. Article 32 says, “The State shall encourage local government institutions’ while Article 140A maintains that ‘Each Provincial Government shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility.” Nevertheless, the word ‘State’ in Article 32 requires more specific details while the word ‘encourage’ seems more like advisory and suggestive in nature than being compulsive. Similarly, Article 140A though appears binding, however, does not define specific timeline and consequences in case of non-compliance. In regards, unlike contemporary constitutional provisions as that of our neighbour India (73rd & 74th amendments), our constitution lacks due political will, does not fix unambiguous responsibility, has no specific timeline and does not elaborate specific details to devolve governance to the grass root level.
Interestingly, Pakistan’s existing governance structure is arranged into six pyramidically hierarchical tiers. The lowest administrative tier consists over 6500 smaller units (Union Council), clubbed into second tier of 515 medium level units (Tehsil),which are orchestrated into third tier of 170 districts that are further arranged in to forth tier of 37 divisions and finally into fifth and final tiers of four provinces and the Federal Government. The existing local government system of Pakistan, if allowed to function in its full form, stands as the peer competitor to its contemporary regional and global systems. If implemented in true letter and spirit, a Union Council, being the smallest administrative unit, contains an average of around 38,500 citizens, which with 21 members stands adequately poised to facilitate dispensation of services to its subjects. Remarkably, an MPA of incumbent Punjab Legislative Assembly represents an average of 345,000/ people (128 million/371 MPAs) which is an impractical and impossible number to manage in terms of provision of services.
Ironically, the issue is not the size of administrative units rather it is the non-devolution of authority and resources to the lowest level. Incompetence and lack of political will makes it further complicated. The current governance system has been dysfunctional for most of its part and instead of six tiers, it has been confined to top two tiers only. Meaning by, provinces have become the lowest administrative units built around over centralization, concentration of power, authority and resources. Taking Punjab as an example of being the lowest administrative unit, is required to look after around 128 million people in terms of human rights, equality, transparency, meritocracy, social justice, peace and security and efficient governance. The task is humongous, impractical and impossible to implement. The answer lies in either devising an altogether new governance system in terms of greater number of provinces or reviving the incumbent governance system. The earlier solution implies reinventing the wheel with exorbitant expenses requiring considerable time to adjust and absorb. While, later only requires resolute political will in which role of the members of the Federal and Provincial legislative assemblies (Senators, MNAs & MPAs) should be strictly confined to legislation only whereas, delivery of services and governance must be left to the local governments only.
—The writer is a retired Air Officer from the PAF and currently serving at the DHA Suffa University (DSU), Karachi.
