Dissecting Pakistan?

Islamabad is lately abuzz with some ‘Good Samaritan’ voices demanding Pakistan’s division into more than a dozen provinces to ‘improve’ administration and governance.

Similar clamour is being generated from select drawing rooms in Lahore where ‘seasoned’ beneficiaries of what Dr Mohammad Waseem calls an “establishmentarian democracy” are asking for the country’s dissection so that the ‘fruits’ of good governance are tasted by the poor and powerless people of Pakistan.

The federal capital is largely a retirement facility for former state servants. Many retired bureaucrats and generals regularly frequent antiquated think tanks nurtured by partisan forces and research institutions funded by opaque sources to share borrowed paradigms that they had not dared share while in service, lest they be sidelined or relegated to sparsely furnished rooms in dimly lit corridors of the federal secretariat as an OSD.

Multiple events have been organised in the past couple of months where partisan political pundits, retired soldiers and bureaucrats put forward their reasons for the country’s administrative segmentation.

It is not ironic that most arguments supporting such an exercise remain embedded in benign wishes rather than fielding potent postulations for the creation of over a dozen new provinces. In fact, the crux of these lobbyists underpins only one argument – the current size of the provinces, especially Punjab, which they say is not serving its population well. Sustained efforts are underway to amplify these demands through national media and social media, in an attempt to manufacture consent.

Abdul Aleem Khan, president of the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party and a federal minister in the PML-N cabinet, too has joined the bandwagon. Instead of introducing his idea in a cabinet meeting where he would have promptly sensed the mood of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his close associates, Khan opted for X (formerly Twitter). 

“I firmly believe that Pakistan’s growing population and expanding administrative needs make the creation of new provinces an urgent national requirement. It is time to reorganise our four existing provinces – Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan – into three new administrative units each, named North, Central, and South, while preserving their original provincial identities.”

Khan’s party has four members in the national and seven in the Punjab parliament and he thinks his restructuring idea “will bring governance closer to the people, ensure efficient delivery of public services, and allow chief secretaries, IGs, and high courts to function more effectively within manageable jurisdictions.”

One can only speculate as to why Aleem Khan chose to publicise an idea that does not really cut ice with the PML-N leadership. As a federal minister, Aleem Khan must know that the executive, judicial, health and education governance structure has regularly been spreading to the ‘grassroots levels’ through the creation of new divisions, districts and subdivisions.

The right to rule or govern Pakistan has been an uneven and contested wrangle between public leaders and state servants. Enough empirical evidence is now available that the struggle to usurp total power began as soon as the father of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, passed away.

Political leaders of the Pakistan movement were sidelined within the first few years and the reins of the state were fully seized by ‘subservient’ civil and military officers who were not only trained in the colonial administrative traditions of divide and rule but also had not played any significant role in the struggle for Pakistan.

Just three months before his passing, Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke to military officers at the Army Staff College, Quetta on June 14, 1948. He was clear and firm about his position regarding the custodians of the state power. “I want you to remember … that the executive authority flows from the head of the Government of Pakistan, who is the governor-general and, therefore, any command or order that may come to you cannot come without the sanction of the executive head. This is the legal position. Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people. You do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted”.

Speaking separately to Pakistan’s first generation of civil servants at Chittagong on March 25 and at Government House, Peshawar on April 14, 1948, the founder of the nation advised civilian officers not to be influenced by any political pressure from any political party or individual politicians. “Governments are formed, governments are defeated, prime ministers come and go, ministers come and go, but you stay on, and therefore, there is a great responsibility placed on your shoulders. Make the people feel that you are their servants and friends”.

One wonders what prompted the uber-intelligent barrister to utter such strong words within the first few months of the creation of the new nation state. Did he already read what was cooking in the minds of many of his officers?

The debate about the need to create more provinces is neither new nor unique. Often, such demands are raised by politicians who have either been nurtured by military dictators or who only believe in the politics of power, privilege and pelf. Punjab, with 141 National Assembly seats, makes or breaks Pakistani politics. Popular politicians like Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, who were once blue-eyed boys, are no longer favoured by the powers that be for reasons known to all and sundry. The political space that political parties were slowly reclaiming since the ouster of Pervez Musharraf in 2008 is now lost once again due to mistakes made by political leaders.

To avoid institutional confrontation, the division of existing provinces makes perfect sense for those that wield power. The smaller the provinces, the weaker the political challenge. Who cares if such blatant bifurcation is financially viable or not? If the country could survive on donations, dole and loans for eight decades, it can go on begging for another hundred years or by selling priceless heirlooms for peanuts.

The writer is the resident editor of The News in Islamabad/Rawalpindi.

Originally published in The News