IT is unfortunate that different political parties keep on raising the issue of new provinces in the country for the sake of their petty political interests, ignoring the ground realities on this sensitive matter. While deliberating on two bills regarding creation of new provinces, the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice Tuesday claimed that there was a need to create more provinces within all the provinces. However, Chairman of the Committee Ali Zafar raised several questions and sought more time from the Chairman of the Upper House for consideration of the bills.
The issue of new provinces, especially those of Hazara in KP, South Punjab and Karachi, are raised with full force by different political forces for the sake of electoral gains but when in power all parties could not justify their strategies and the pledges in this regard vanished in thin air. Creation of new provinces demands consensus which becomes an improbability in the highly polarized political environment of the country. The latest move also seems to be entirely politically motivated, otherwise there was no point in making such a demand when there were no provincial assemblies (main stakeholders in decision-making on the issue) in Punjab and KP and political opinion is highly divided on different lines. Creation of provinces on ethnic consideration would be unfortunate as this would add to existing polarization while the so-called sense of deprivation of some areas/regions can effectively be addressed without adding to the economic burden of the state apparatus. The administrative structure of the country is already efficiently divided into provinces, divisions, districts, tehsils and union councils and demands for economic empowerment can surely be taken care of through reforms that should ensure judicious distribution of resources from provinces to divisions, districts, tehsils and down to union councils.
