Why more provinces? The real issue is representation

There has been a long-standing demand for the creation of additional provinces in Pakistan, particularly a province in South Punjab. Bahawalpur has also been proposed as a strong candidate because, before the creation of Pakistan, Bahawalpur was an independent princely state that later acceded to Pakistan.However, before embarking on the complicated and expensive process of creating more provinces, we need to ask a fundamental question: Will new provinces actually solve Pakistan’s political and administrative problems? Punjab is by far the largest province in terms of population, accounting for roughly 60 percent of Pakistan’s population. Under the present parliamentary system, any political party that secures a large number of seats in Punjab has a major advantage in forming the federal government. This creates a perception among the other three provinces that their political weight at the national level is disproportionately low.This is a genuine constitutional and political issue, but creating more provinces may not be the only, or even the best, answer. The creation of new provinces would require new governments, assemblies, secretariats, administrative structures and a large additional financial burden. At a time when Pakistan is already facing severe economic challenges and carrying a huge external debt, the country must carefully consider whether it can afford such an expansion of government. Instead of dividing the country administratively, we should first examine whether the problem can be addressed through political and constitutional reforms.
The Senate already provides a possible model. In the Senate, provinces have equal representation regardless of their population. The same principle could be debated for the National Assembly: whether some form of equal or balanced provincial representation could be introduced to prevent the population advantage of one province from completely determining the composition of the federal government. Such a proposal would naturally face strong opposition, particularly from Punjab, and it would require extensive constitutional debate. But that debate is preferable to immediately creating several new provinces and adding billions of rupees to the cost of governance. We have an example where West Pakistan remained a single administrative “One Unit” for nearly 15 years, from October 14, 1955, until July 1, 1970, merging all provinces, states, and tribal areas of West Pakistan into one single province to create parity with East Pakistan. However, on July 1, 1970, Gen Yahya restored the original separate provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP), and Baluchistan, this did wok satisfactorily that means more provinces are not needed but it is the governance that has to be improved
There is also another important point. If population alone is to determine political representation, then geographical realities cannot simply be ignored. Baluchistan, for example, constitutes the largest province by area. Its vast territory presents enormous administrative, security and development challenges. Therefore, any serious discussion about provincial representation should consider population, territory, resources, administrative difficulties and national interests, rather than focusing on population alone. The objective should not be to weaken Punjab or deprive any province of its legitimate rights. Nor should the demand for new provinces be dismissed outright. South Punjab and Bahawalpur have genuine historical and administrative arguments that deserve discussion. But creating provinces merely to correct an imbalance in the National Assembly could prove to be an extremely expensive solution to a political problem. Pakistan needs fewer slogans and more practical thinking. Before drawing new boundaries, we should ask whether better representation, stronger local governments, a more powerful Senate and constitutional reforms can achieve the same objective without creating another layer of costly administration. This issue has been raised to divert the attention of people from real issues whereas the real issue is not how many provinces Pakistan has. The real issue is whether every province feels fairly represented in the federation. That problem should be solved first.