How many provinces?

The question of creating new provinces is no longer why, but how and when?

Economic neglect and social deprivation invariably sow the seeds of separation. Ironically, the separatist sentiment achieves political maturity only when the neglect is recognised for redressal, which is always too late. The promise of removing inter-wing disparity to East Pakistan in the 60s and the recent focus on development in southern Punjab exemplifies this phenomenon. How quickly consensus can emerge on a subject as emotive as the creation of new provinces must surprise not just the diehard centralists but also the protagonists. In April 2010, the people of Hazara rose to demand a separate province. In that same month, in this column, this writer had stated that Hazara would show the way to others. Exactly a year on, the question of creating new provinces is no longer hurting the ‘Ideology of Pakistan’. Now the question is not why, but how and when?

It is no more a secret that the parliamentary committee on the Eighteenth Amendment had decided to steer clear of the issue — until the saber-rattling on renaming the NWFP. The N-League’s blunder in preferring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to Hazara Pakhtunkhwa in order to dilute the ethnic connotation fired up the Hazarewals. Its continued stand on administrative convenience as the main justification for creating new provinces will backfire again. The same reasoning was advanced in favour of West Pakistan: It would economise on expenditure with one instead of four capitals. But the real objective was to submerge ethnicities and subvert East Pakistan’s weight, in terms of population. What was billed as a recipe to strengthen the federation turned out to be the exact opposite for the Pakistani nation. Far from improving administration, the restoration in Punjab of commissioners and deputy commissioners in the guise of district coordination officers has only alienated Bahawalpur and southern as well as northern Punjab. The former rulers of the now defunct princely state of Bahawalpur and their supporters are already mobilised and the Seraiki consensus is no more confined to intellectuals. All political leaders of southern Punjab now agree on a separate province. Ignoring this development will invite mass mobilisation. The silence in Potohar in Punjab is only a lull before the storm. Elsewhere, the residents of northern Balochistan have always found affinity with their counterparts in southern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The Punjab leadership should learn from the wisdom shown by Asfandyar Wali, who recognised the rights of the people of Hazara to wage a constitutional struggle. Talking of the constitution, the latest casualty to administrative convenience is the Fata package. There is only one way to mainstream the people of Fata: To ask them whether they want a province of their own or a merger with KP.

The Eighteenth Amendment showed respect to ethnic sensitivities by correcting the spellings of Balochistan and Sindh and changing the name of NWFP to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the state continues to be defined by the four provinces, Islamabad being the capital territory and Fata with its unchanged name. There is even provision for accession by new territories. But there is no provision for the creation of new provinces except as an amendment to the Constitution. Indeed, it is even more difficult. Article 239(4) requires two-thirds majority not only in the parliament, but also in the concerned provincial assembly. In his note of reiteration, Senator SM Zafar had suggested simplification of this procedure “as in future, the redistribution of provinces into more provinces would be in the interest of Pakistan and the federation.” The time for this has come sooner than the senator might have thought. In no small measure, the ground for new provinces has been prepared by the persistent refusal of the political class to devolve power to the local level, which is the closest that a government can connect with the citizens for effective delivery. Perhaps a new social contract is emerging.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2011.