More provinces: tread this path carefully

Former Federal Minister Senator Raza Rabbani has urged Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to be more cautious in his decision to pursue a demand for another province carved out of Punjab. At a time when the debate for new provinces has gained momentum, Rabbani's advice to President Zardari is sound and reflects the senator's decades of political experience.

Rabbani has asked the PPP co-chairperson to convene a meeting of party's Central Executive Committee and debate this issue within the party at all levels before moving forward. The good senator is reluctant at best at the idea of new provinces because of the "fluid political situation" in the country "plagued by terrorism, extremism, sectarianism and regionalism." Rabbani makes a valid point as he raises concerns over the possibility of new provinces nurturing ethnic and linguistic divides.

The senator's caution in this regard carries weight. There are other considerations at hand. The formation of the new provinces is in the same spirit as of the 18th Amendment which devolved the centre's powers for better governance and accountability. Though, there are still those with furrowed brows over the capacity of the existing provinces to handle the newly acquired financial and administrative powers. The same concerns multiply in the light of the newly formed units.

There is an evident tussle going on between the PPP and PML-N on this issue ever since the PML-N felt its hold on Punjab was weakening with the Seraiki province debate. When the PPP announced that it would make a Seraiki province part of their manifesto for the next election, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif responded in a knee-jerk reaction, calling for making Karachi a province - a statement he later disowned.

The PML-N leaders have, since April, learnt to read the electorate's temperament. After Nawaz Sharif was re-elected as the party's chairperson, he supported the idea of new provinces based on administrative practicalities and not ethnic or linguistic divides. Recently the party has formed a special committee on the issue of new provinces and is now calling upon the government to form a national commission.

The national commission proposed by the PML-N is necessary in forming a broad-based, inclusive consensus among all political parties. Senator Rabbani has hit the bull's eye in his letter when he writes that demanding and creating one province would start a "snow ball" effect in all other provinces. After Shahbaz Sharif's comments that seek to make Karachi a province, the three major political parties of Sindh - MQM, PPP and ANP - vehemently rejected the idea.

Yet, there are already very audible murmurs, with varying degrees of legitimacy, about stencilling a Bahawalpur province in Punjab, carving out a Hazara province from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, creating another province for Pashtuns in Balochistan, or merging Pashtun-dominated part of Balochistan with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and bringing Fata under Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or giving it a separate province's status. It seems that the MMA has also joined the fray as one of their MPAs from Mianwali recently made a call for a Thal province with a view to saving Mianwali from the Seraiki lords.

Any further debate on the formation of provinces now needs to be done on the platform of a national commission. The will of the people through their political representatives must be given due consideration. The debate on provinces is only going to gain more traction as the elections approach and it is extremely important to bring every stakeholder on the table and reach a unanimous conclusion.

However, the ruling party and its allies will have to tread a delicate line to keep the redefining of provincial boundaries from getting tinged by ethnic and linguistic tones. Changing the name of an existing province aside, it will be a misguided precedence to restructure provincial boundaries based on ethnicity or language. A small example of what will follow can be seen in the recent demand by Pakistan Christian Congress for a separate province for the Christian minority in Southwest Punjab. The focus of all legislatures should be on forming provinces based on administrative needs and political realities.

Published in Business Recorder (21 August 2011).

Note: This editorial was written for BR and reflects the view of the paper. It is posted here as part of my writing record.