Not a federation

ISLAMABAD: With reference to recent remarks by PPP leaders and all those who refer to Pakistan as a federation, here are some basic facts that need to be clearly understood. In 1947, when Pakistan came into being, the large province of Bengal was divided, with its eastern part becoming the erstwhile East Pakistan. Punjab, stretching from the Indus to Jumna and then ruled by the Unionist Party government that was not in favour of Pakistan, was also divided, with its western portion becoming a part of Pakistan. A referendum was held in the frontier province, minus the tribal areas, on the issue of joining Pakistan. Balochistan had multiple arrangements of governance — there were British-ruled areas, tribal agencies and states. It got the status of province much later. Only Sindh existed in its present form and its assembly passed the resolution to join Pakistan.

Today, those who harp on terming Pakistan a ‘federation’ and talk about ‘federating units’ need to revisit our not-very-distant history. ‘Federation’ defines a country consisting of individual ‘states’ that have control over their own affairs, but form part of a central government that is left with few subjects under its jurisdiction, such as external affairs, currency and defence. Pakistan was not formed by any ‘federating units’ if we refer to the circumstances prevalent in 1947. Large-scale migration of the population took place, with original inhabitants of the land migrating on the basis of religion. That does not happen when a ‘federation’ is formed.

Pakistan has to be a unitary state with a central legislature and devolved powers at different tiers of administrative units, such as provinces, districts, tehsils and union councils. Repeated use of the term ‘federation’ by many people over the last few years is an ominous development. This makes it easier for our enemies to further fragment Pakistan if a provincial assembly is induced into passing a resolution to secede from Pakistan. To forestall such a possibility, there is a need to make basic changes in our Constitution to resolve the issue.

Colonel (retd) Nazir Ahmed

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2015.

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