Having more provinces will only make the federation stronger, not weaker.
KOT ADDU: This is in response to the August 17 article “New provinces will break Pakistan” by Zahid F Ebrahim. I fail to find a single reasonable argument in the said article which could appeal to our attention and dissuade us from the idea of having new provinces.
The writer has said that the 1973 Constitution does not foresee the creation of new provinces but, despite being an advocate of the Supreme Court, he could not grasp the idea behind Article 239 (4) of the Constitution which clearly states: “A Bill to amend the Constitution which would have the effect of altering the limits of a Province shall not be presented to the President for assent unless it has been passed by the Provincial Assembly of that Province by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership.” Quite clearly, the Constitution lays down the method for the creation of new provinces.
Then he brings in political games being played by various parties without mentioning a single time the level of deprivation and poverty in south Punjab. I request him to visit these areas or perhaps live there for few years and then judge whether their demands are just or not. As for more provinces out of Sindh or Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in principle what is so bad about such debate? Is it not the right of people to express such aspirations if indeed such aspirations are found in a large enough segment of the general population?
Surely, the time has come for bold steps to be taken on this issue. I would say that having more provinces will only make the federation stronger, not weaker.
Engineer Waseem Riaz
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2011.
