Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan has considered it an apt time to make a groundbreaking suggestion—he has advocated turning every division in the country into a province, claiming it would make governance more effective. According to the PTI leader, the country’s problems can be tackled more effectively if every division is treated as a province.
This is not the first time that such an opinion has been voiced—the discourse on more provinces has been relevant for quite some time. Many have in the past spoken up about the absurdity of only a few provinces in a country with a burgeoning population. Others have commented on the overlooked fact of how far-flung the seat of government is in every province.
However, the PTI leader’s statement is badly timed and seems to be without substance. It is futile to voice such support for such a substantive change without backing it up with the legwork or explaining how this would be more efficient. Firstly, this discourse is not useful at this time when the country is ravaged by floods. Secondly, PTI must realise that making new provinces from the existing provinces would require approval from a two-thirds majority of the respective legislatures and the parliament—given the current disarray and almost complete breakdown in any dialogue between the opposition and government due to the stubbornness of both, this appears an impossibility.
It is therefore fruitless to give suggestions when the PTI is clearly not ready to negotiate with the government on anything, let alone a constitutional amendment. Thirdly, all political parties have highly disappointed and failed the system of local governance; during the government of PTI and PML-N both, local bodies have remained weak and elections delayed. Breaking down the provinces into smaller administrative units would require problems to be resolved at a more local level, which can be done only through strengthening the local government as per the constitution. PTI cannot throw big ideas in the air, like more provinces, without demonstrating to the public that it can walk the talk i.e. show its commitment to making a new system work by empowering local bodies.