Pakistan and the word “division” immediately evoke memories of 1971, when the Islamic Republic split and lost its eastern province, East Pakistan. But the division being discussed today is of a different kind. It’s a division that the current Pakistani regime is now aggressively pursuing.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Communications, Abdul Aleem Khan, said that smaller provinces will “definitely be created”, arguing that the move would improve governance and service delivery
For decades, Pakistan has debated the proposal of adding more provinces to the federation. At Independence in 1947, the country had five provinces, namely, East Bengal, West Punjab, Sindh, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and Balochistan. East Bengal declared independence and became Bangladesh after the 1971 Liberation War, West Punjab became Punjab, the NWFP was renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh and Balochistan remained unchanged.
AMID TENSIONS IN BALOCHISTAN, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAK TO CARVE OUT MORE PROVINCES
The move to further divide Pakistan administratively comes as the hybrid regime of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif faces strong independence sentiments and fierce opposition from the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Abdul Aleem Khan’s statement, according to a report in Pakistani daily Dawn, also comes after a rash of seminars, media discussions, and opinionated commentaries on the idea of increasing the number of provinces in Pakistan.
Addressing a convention, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) leader Abdul Aleem Khan said that the move would help strengthen “administrative control” and deliver better services to the citizens.
He said that three provinces each would be created out of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), reported Geo TV.
“All neighbouring countries around us have several small provinces,” said Khan.
The Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party, of which Abdul Aleem Khan is a leader, is part of the PM Shehbaz Sharif-led civilian government of Pakistan. It should, however, be noted that the Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is a bigger constituent of the Sharif government, which traditionally has been opposed to the division of Sindh.
In November, Sindh’s CM and PPP leader, Murad Ali Shah, had warned that his party would not accept any move to bifurcate or trifurcate the province.
This is not the first time, and probably won’t be the last, that the plan to carve out more provinces in Pakistan has been floated. But none have materialised. This time, however, the proposal has been backed by several think tanks and parties of PM Sharif’s coalition, including the IIP and the Sindh-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
