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AS the debate on changing provincial boundaries and decentralisation rages on, it is worth taking a step back to see what is at stake here. What are the main problems that require attention and which have made several people, including entrenched insiders, declare that the current system is ‘broken’?
Extraction and delivery
In domains of extraction, there is an urgent need to reduce discretion and fragmentation of state authority, perhaps even with the use of automated structures in whatever form.share.google
The biggest issue being sidestepped by everyone involved (except opposition parties) remains constitutional rule and legitimacy of the state. The current discourse chooses to ignore this, considering it either taboo or a foregone conclusion. Bringing it up seems particularly futile in this discussion given how little it bears on those making decisions and increasingly with those tasked with interrogating these decisions.
Editorial: There is quite a bit of noise and confusion emanating from Islamabad on the question of new provinces. The defence minister, Khawaja Asif, recently suggested the possibility of there being as many as 12 provinces under a new configuration, drawn on administrative rather than ethnic or linguistic lines. Now, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi wants to hold a referendum to ‘settle’ the matter.
Read the full editorial here: https://www.dawn.com/news/2044455
