THE issue of more provinces was, off and on, raised by different circles and politicians to suit their interests yet this time round a serious debate is going on for creation of new provinces out of existing all the four on the plea that they will become more manageable and help resolve people’s problems. The ruling PML (N), for understandable reasons, has adopted a cautious approach to the issue, the PPP is dead against any concept of division of Sindh.
Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has called for a formal debate on creating new provinces in Pakistan, proposing that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set-up a committee to examine country’s administrative structure. He proposed that the country could have twelve to fifteen provinces, adding this should be done on an equitable formula that does not change representation too drastically in one direction. Going by the fact that the issue keeps on surfacing every now and then poisoning national atmosphere, the Minister has a point in proposing setting up of a committee to address the issue once for all. The committee should have due representation of political parties and experts and should analyse the matter in a comprehensive manner. It should carry out indepth analysis of the viewpoint that restructuring of the provinces into smaller units will improve administration and also whether the country can afford huge expenses that will be needed for additional set ups. Similarly, the process should either culminate in creation of new units on administrative basis or bury the jaundiced calls for division of Punjab on linguistic basis. There should be no undue haste in deciding the issue and the committee be allowed to take its time in view of its broad-ranging implications.
