IPRI roundtable declares new provinces imperative for better governance
Pakistan
Says empowerment of people at local government level may also add to service delivery
Event notes Punjab is larger than 196 countries, which highlights need for redrawing boundaries
Options include conversion of administrative units into new provinces or merger of several districts into new provinces
Regional political elite is seen as an obstacle to achieve objective
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - A roundtable discussion was held at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) on the need for new provinces to improve governance and public service delivery on Wednesday.
A gathering of politicians, public policy practitioners, academics, and media attended the moot.
The roundtable was addressed by former governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Owais Ahmad Ghani, Executive Director SOPREST Shakeel Durrani, former federal secretary Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, former federal minister Daniyal Aziz, former ambassador Muhammad Hassan, and former federal minister Zubaida Jalal.
Former special representative to Afghanistan Amb Asif Durrani, corporate and legal attorney Hafiz Ahsan Ahmad, eminent jurist Dr Shoaib Suddle, former caretaker minister Murtaza Solangi, and Dunya TV Managing Director Naveed Kashif also participated.
The speakers urged the need for adopting an organic solution to the prevailing administrative and governance problems in the country, and were of the view that creating new provinces was sine qua non for public good and national security.
It was opined that the province of Punjab was larger than 196 countries. That prompts either redrawing of boundaries and redistribution of resources, if present-day discord has to be addressed with the growing needs and necessities of a swelling population.
Some of the logical options on the table are either to convert administrative units into new provinces or merge several districts into new provinces.
It was also noted that the regional political elite was one of the obstacles on its way, as they see the creation of new provinces as detrimental to their interests.
Likewise, the regional parties do not see the same prism as the mainstream political parties, pushing the issue in limbo. It was stated that a viable way is to let the parliament lead from the front through the formation of a commission or more viable will be the formation of a parliamentary committee to create new provinces after threadbare consultations by taking on board all the stakeholders from media to intelligentsia.
IPRI President Amb Dr Raza Muhammad opened the dialogue, and the discussion was moderated by IPRI Director Research Dr Rashid Wali Janjua, who highlighted the administrative, economic and political factors that necessitated new provinces.
The participants elucidated that the delivery of public goods like law and order, civic amenities, and infrastructure development would improve significantly if the existing administrative divisions were converted into new provinces.
More to read: Majority support creation of new provinces in Dunya News survey
According to Daniyal Aziz, a very important governance element was the empowerment of people at the local government level, which would be facilitated by the devolution of powers to local governments.
The downside could be the country’s departure from federalism and transition towards the unitary polity, entailing national consensus and constitutional amendments.
According to former bureaucrats like Shakeel Durrani and Ishtiaq Ahmed, the existing administrative divisions could very effectively function as new provinces with manageable sizes for efficient and economical public service delivery.
The participants of the roundtable were of the view that if countries like Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Turkiye could have 34, 38, and 81 provinces, then Pakistan would also be better served through more provinces.
It was observed that the root of the problem was that the governance system lacked an effective local government module, and the same had been a victim of interference and lack of schedules to devolve powers. That had led to manoeuvering from senior bureaucracy grinding down to more chaos and problems.
Similarly, the clear stipulation of finances is another reason for the prevailing unrest among the administrative units.
