ISLAMABAD:
While acknowledging imperfections in the current governance system, mainstream political parties have favoured strengthening the constitutionally guaranteed local government system instead of creating new provinces.
During a day-long discussion on the need for new provinces or administrative units, participants also blamed the bureaucracy for poor governance and inadequate service delivery.
At the discussion, organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), a think tank, participants argued that Pakistan did not suffer from a resource crunch; rather, public spending was failing to produce the desired impact because of the concentration of powers in provincial capitals.
Representatives of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) opposed the creation of new provinces. However, legislators from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) supported the proposal.
A majority of independent experts also favoured devolving administrative, political and financial powers directly to local governments. One participant even proposed abolishing the provincial tier and retaining only two levels of government – the federal government and fully empowered local administrative units.
“The administrative units already exist, and if the purpose is to take service delivery to the doorsteps of the people, then the solution is to empower local governments,” said PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja.
Raja said dividing Punjab into three provinces would still leave around 40 million people in each province and would not provide the required solution. He said Article 140-A, which deals with local governments, was vague and needed to be strengthened.
The PTI leader also called for greater constitutional protection for local governments and opposed the proposal for a national referendum on the creation of new provinces, saying the Constitution already provided a mechanism for the purpose.
“It’s a nonsensical suggestion,” Raja said, while also opposing any amendment to Article 239, which empowers provincial assemblies to approve changes relating to provincial boundaries.
Before considering legal or constitutional changes, there was a need for political parties to initiate internal discussions on the creation of new provinces, said Minister of State for Law Barrister Aqeel Malik.
“No political party has yet started discussing this issue,” he said, adding that the 2001 local government system was much better and should have been further strengthened.
The SDPI organised the seminar weeks after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Pakistan’s governance system had collapsed and advocated the creation of new provinces.
Pakistan is currently facing multiple challenges, and debate over new provinces could expose existing fault lines, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira warned.
He said people were already questioning the electoral process for the National Assembly, while provincial chief ministers had become more powerful than the prime minister and were reluctant to support a strong local government system.
“The solution to narrow nationalism and terrorism is not sub-regional nationalism,” Kaira said.
He also opposed holding a national referendum on the issue, saying the Constitution already provided a mechanism for creating new provinces. Kaira added that democratic institutions could not function effectively under duress.
The constitution was never followed, which created more problems, said Haroon-ur-Rasheed, President Supreme Court Bar Association, while urging the political parties to unanimously decide about the need for new administrative units.
“Smaller provinces do not mean automatic improvement in governance”, said Barrister Daniyal Chaudhry, parliamentary secretary of ministry of information. Daniyal said that divisions of provinces would lead to creation of more bureaucratic posts that would further complicate governance.
The parliamentary secretary said that it was fiscally unsustainable to create more provinces.
The current system has failed to deliver and one of the reasons is that bureaucracy is corrupt and incompetent, said MNA Noor Alam Khan of JUI-F. He supported strengthening the local government systems and argued that creation of more provinces would create inter-provincial tensions over distribution of resources.
The destruction of the current governance system was because of incompetent bureaucracy. Stop blaming politicians and military and start pointing fingers at bureaucrats, said Mohammad Malick a renowned anchorperson.
MQM-Pakistan’s MNA Miss Aasia Ishaqe strongly voiced in favour of new provinces and blamed the politicians for the failure of the current governance system.
The owner of Dunya News, Mian Amir, reiterated the need for creation of 32 provinces, saying that this would result in giving maximum resources to eight new provinces that should be created against one Balochistan followed by transfer of more resources in new provinces in lieu of Sindh.
However, contrary to public perception, the government of Balochistan has surplus funds and it gets its share in the divisible pool on the basis of projected tax collection target of the Federal Board of Revenue instead of actual collection.
Making more provinces is like doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results, said Rana Ihsaan Afzal, coordinator to the Prime Minister on Industries. He said that provinces did not have an effective role in many issues impacting people and businesses thus there was a need to strengthen the local government system.
Rana Ihsaan said that there was a need to amend the constitution to free the local governments from the control of the provinces, as the provincial government would never want strong local setups.
Dr Khaqan Hasan Najeeb, former advisor to the finance ministry, said that amendments may be introduced in article 140-A of the constitution to increase local government spending from 4.7% to 40% of teh budgets to ensure delivery of services at the people’s doorstep. He proposed setting up a Reorganization Commission to assess the need for new provinces.
A generalist model of governance would not work and there is a need to appoint only technically qualified bureaucrats at key positions to improve the service delivery, said Khaqan.
Dr Farrukh Saleem, a financial analyst, said that creation of new provinces would not create more fiscal space as people are already heavily taxed. He said creation of new provinces would multiply expenses on bureaucracy and running these new civilian setups, which Pakistan cannot afford.
Farrukh Saleem suggested abolishing the provincial tier of governance and instead creating a stronger local government setup based on the existing administrative units.
Currently there are one Islamabad and four mini Islamabads and no one should commit a mistake of making 33 more mini Islamabads by creating 33 provinces, said Farrukkh Saleem.
“Work being done in haste may have repercussions and any changes should be made only with political consensus”, said Fawad Chaudhry, former minister for information during the PTI government. He warned that no foundational changes can be made in the structure of the constitution when the political leader of the majority of the people was in jail.
Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, advisor to chief minister KP, said that any decision about the need for the new provinces should be made with consensus.
He said that there was a need for new provinces but in addition to that the devolution of power to the local bodies should also take place.
He said that any proposition for new provinces would require many amendments in the Constitution, particularly in the articles dealing with the method to create provinces, representation in the Senate and the National Assembly, courts and distribution of financial resources.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that no foundational change can be made in the structure of the constitution and any amendment in the Article 239, which deals with a provincial assembly resolution with two-third majority to create new provinces, might be challenged in the Supreme Court, said Barrister Saif.
Barrister Saif proposed a new national commission on the issue of creating new provinces.
Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal of MQM said that the real issue was the control over the 57.5% resources that the provinces get as their shares in the National Finance Commission.
