Pakistan’s long-running debate over the creation of new provinces has resurfaced, but without any clear political initiative, according to Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the think-tank PILDAT. In this video Mehboob said the sudden wave of seminars, media discussions and policy papers suggested the issue was being orchestrated rather than emerging organically from political parties or popular demand. Past proposals for provinces such as Bahawalpur, Hazara, urban Sindh and a Seraiki belt had flared up periodically, he noted, but no movement had achieved critical mass. Mehboob warned that while ruling coalitions with parliamentary strength might be tempted to push the agenda, forging the required consensus in parliament and among parties would be extremely difficult. He argued that new provinces would be costly, politically destabilising and unnecessary when stronger local government could deliver the same benefits at far lower expense. The legal and constitutional hurdles — requiring two-thirds approval in the provincial assemblies, National Assembly and Senate — made boundary changes improbable, he said. The reorganisation of provinces, he warned, risked unleashing ethnic and linguistic demands that could endanger the federation’s stability, as seen in India’s violent statehood movements. With terrorism resurging and the economy still fragile, Mehboob said Pakistan’s main parties, including the PPP and PML-N, had little appetite for a divisive fight over provinces and would prefer to focus on security, growth and basic governance.
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