Population growth key reason for new provinces, say experts

A debate about creating new adminstrative divisions from among Paksitan's current provinces is gaining momentum, with experts and political figures arguing that the current administrative distribution is archaic and doesn't meet the needs of the country as it is today, 

At a forum held by the SDPI on August 14 in Islamabad, numerous political figures from both the government and opposition parties as well as academics weighed in on the issue, with many saying that care needed to be taken and consensus built before any proposed changes to existing povincial structures. 

The debate is often fraught with political concerns since political parties worry that the move is designed as a first step towards a presidential system of government, which might decrease their power at the federal level. Many were opposed to the district mayoral (nazim) system introduced by former President and Army Chief Pervaiz Musharraf, despite its popularity with the voting public who largely saw it as an effective and responsive system. 

The core of the debate however, is that Pakistan's population has grown exponentially since independence in 1947 and that the provincial boundaries as they were drawn at the time were based on ethnic and linguistic boundaries by the British for the purposes of keeping communities divided. In 1954, the total population of what was then West Pakistan was just under forty million, Today the population of Punjab alone is 112 million, larger than most countries in the world. 

Writing in Southasia magazine, Dr Mehtab Karim noted that Pakistan's population is projected to reach 312 million by 250, and that delaying the divisioon of the provinces into more manageable units would further regress the state's ability to respond to public needs and solve problems. 

He proposed an division that would create 20 adminsitrative units, along with the districts they should include, with the largest having a population of 21 million. 

Writing for the National Defence University (NDU), Dr Imran Sabir and Rameez Ahmed in polling conducted in 2021 found that 82.5 percent of respondents were in favour of new provinces and 81 percent felt that populations iwere too large in their current province. 

They also found that 81 percent felt that smaller units would lead to better governance and 64.1 percent wanted stronger local government.