New provinces and provincial autonomy

[EjazR]

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Deadlock over NWFP?s name blocks amendments

ISLAMABAD: Renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwah and provincial autonomy beyond the repeal of the concurrent list are stumbling blocks in the way of presentation in parliament of a unanimous package for amending the 17th and 8th amendments to the Constitution.

The 26-member special parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms is meeting daily for an early preparation of recommendations and has revisited 127 articles of the Constitution in 29 meetings.

However, it is yet to review the articles on which various parties differ.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan asked the Pakistan Muslim League-N on Monday to review its opposition to the renaming of the Frontier province to break the deadlock and pave way for a consensus on a constitutional package.

Awami National Party’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Haji Mohammad Adeel confirmed that the issues of renaming the NWFP and handing over to the provinces control over their resources had caused a deadlock in the committee.

He said all members of the committee belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, PML-F, PPP-S and Baloch nationalist leaders had agreed to the renaming of the province as Pakhtunkhwah, but the PML-N and PML-Q were opposing the move.

He said members from smaller provinces were seeking a provision for rotation of the presidency so that every province got the post in turn.

‘We want the provincial languages to be recognised as national languages as has been done in India where 17 languages are recognised as official languages.’ (Comment - its actually 22 languages now)

 

[jupiter2007]

Can any Pakistani explain why PML-Q, N and JI consider Pakhtoonkhwa a controversial name? Why would Afghania be less controversial seeing that it resembles Afghanistan?

Ejaz,

NWPF should be split into 4 provinces because not everyone is Pathan/Pushtoon in NWFP.

or 16-17 provinces

 

[sparklingway]

Senate moved for Saraiki, Bahawalpur provinces
​

Monday, April 12, 2010
By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: The issue of creation of Seraiki and Bahawalpur provinces is all set to rock the Senate, which will start the first reading of the 18th Amendment bill on Monday as two Senators Mohammad Ali Durrani and Jamal Leghari have submitted their separate proposals to create new provinces in the country.

Senator Jamal Leghari is said to have been given an assurance by PML-Q leaders Ch Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi that their party senators will vote in favour of South Punjab province. But, both the PML-Q leaders did not give any assurance to Durrani on the Bahawalpur province.

Senator Jamal Khan Leghari confirmed to The News that he had moved an amendment in the 18th Amendment bill and had been given an assurance by Ch Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi that the PML-Q would back this amendment to create the South Punjab province. He said this was not an ordinary decision on the part of the PML-Q leadership.

To a question why he did not name it Seraiki province, Jamal said he did not want to create any lingual rift, as the basic purpose was to get a separate province, which would ensure development through decentralization of powers.

In his bill, Jamal Khan justified that “for too long the Federation of Pakistan has been under a severe strain because one province, namely Punjab has 60 per cent of the total population of the country and the three other provinces and Fata have only 40 per cent. It is time that in Punjab a new province comprising the south of Punjab be created. This does not in anyway mean that we advocate the creation of other provinces in rest of the country.”

Jamal Khan in his note attached with the amendment has also opposed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and recommended it should be renamed as Sarhad. “I believe that the name of former NWFP be changed to Sarhad as otherwise severe strain, based on lingual and ethnic considerations, will erupt within that province and this will have very serious consequences for the rest of the provinces and the Federation. These proposed amendments will create stability in the Federation and will also address the issue of social and economic injustice of backward areas”.

Meanwhile, Durrani in his separate amendment has proposed amendment in Article 1 of the Constitution to create Bahawalpur and Seraiki provinces. He has also proposed that parliament may by law form a new province by separating territory from any province or by uniting any area, territory and part as recommended by the provincial assembly through adopting a resolution to that effect.

 

[VrSoLdIeRs]

these people will never ever learn!!!! its like rather then putting a bandage over the wound they are trying to stuff the mouth with a lollipop!!!

time for some 'real' issues to be solved!!!

 

[sparklingway]

As much as everybody would like dissolution of provinces on administrative, it seems highly unlikely and people will go for political point scoring.

Senate's financial monitoring, project monitoring/overseeing powers are extremely limited. This is what they do when they know they have no oversight powers and legislation is ineffective.

 

[Kompromat]

Time to make Pakistan "One Unit"

 

[sparklingway]

Time to make Pakistan "One Unit"

It was in West Pakistan's favor to create one unit as it was clearly directed at maintaining domination over legislative, executive and economic powers while trying to portray a farce system of equality.

People who want to have totalitarian and autocratic powers have always vied for a highly federalized system, which we have become. The normal counter narrative always runs the BS tale of democracy and provincial autonomy being unfit for Pakistan.

Those who still believe that somehow a highly federalized state would be better are, in my opinion, so deep into the cloud of self righteousness and arrogance that it is impossible to convince them that a ethnically and linguistically diverse nation is best administered in the form of small, financially and politically autonomous provinces.

 

[ifti_khar_azam]

At my Point of view now there is need to decentralized the provinces. Punjab must be divided into three parts, Sind, Balochistan and Sarhad(Khyber) must be in two parts so that administratively it is easy to handle and control.

 

[devil'sadvocate]

Making new provinces makes sense but realistically speaking it would never gather enough support to be implemented.

Another alternative could be to reconstitute the old divisions (which were dissolved in 2000) and have stronger local governments.

Divisions before 2000:
Balochistan:
Kalat · Makran · Nasirabad · Quetta · Sibi · Zhob

NWFP:
Bannu · Dera Ismail Khan · Hazara · Kohat · Malakand · Mardan · Peshawar

Punjab:
Bahawalpur · Dera Ghazi Khan · Faisalabad · Gujranwala · Lahore · Multan · Rawalpindi · Sahiwal · Sargodha

Sindh:
Hyderabad · Karachi · Larkana · Mirpur Khas · Sukkur

 

[Crypto]

I don't understand why they want to create provinces based on ethnicity; it should be on the grounds of administration and how it will help GOP, mange resources in a more effective way. Ethnicity based division is bound to create more troubles in the long run.

I agree with above post that provincial government should have more control and power over its resources.

 

[HAIDER]

Population is increasing, time for more administrative reforms.Problem is, some political parties might lose political grip in certain areas that's why they keep on linger. But all these cunning negative attitude will fire back soon ....

 

[Nahraf]

I think that old Divisions should be made states and the current provinces should be dissolved. This idea came up few years ago but most people from Sindh opposed it.

 

[sparklingway]

A friend of mine shared with me what he perceives to be the best solution to new provincial demarcations. I understand that many believe that the old divisions would be good provincial demarcations, but IMO we don't want 26 provinces as well. 8 to 10 would be the ideal number.

Anyways, these are the recommendations (I'm not sure if this is his original work)

Makran (Capital: Turbat), Chaghi (Capital: Noshki), Kalat (Capital: Khuzdar), Bolan (Capital: Naseerabad), Quetta (Capital: Quetta), Hyderabad (Capital: Hyderabad), Larkana (Capital: Larkana), Sibi (Capital: Sibi), Sukkur (Capital: Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto), Zhob (Capital: Zhob), Mirpurkhas (Capital: Mirpurkhas), Dera Ghazi Khan (Capital: Dera Ghazi Khan), Thar Parkar (Capital: Mithi), Pakhtunkhwa (Capital: Hangu), Bhawalpur (Capital: Bhawalpur), Khyber (Capital: Peshawar), West Punjab (Capital: Faisalabad), Saraikistan (Capital: Multan), Potohar (Capital: Abbotabad), Central Punjab (Capital: Lahore), Baltistan (Capital: Gilgit)

These are too many as far as I see it. Infact, way too many.

The idea of Potohar with capital in Abbotabad seems unique and interesting to me, for most of us have been treating this topic by trying to carve one or two new provinces from inside a province. This Potohar suggestion merges Rawalpindi, Attock, Abbotabad and Hazara. Would be beneficial as most people here share the same languages (Hindko, Potohari and Punjabi being dominant).

I've seen a bunch of ******** suggesting that provinces should be named like the following scheme : Southwest Pakistan, Central Pakistan, North Eastern Pakistan, etc. This, IMO, is inhumane and unworkable. Only a totalitarian trying to wipe off linguistic and ethnic diversity would do such a thing, and most of our "educated" class bends towards totalitarian and dictatorial policies anyways.

 

[Creder]

Sparkles your like a senior member here yar, its our responsibility to cap this internet propaganda about dividing Pakistan into a gazillion provinces. The entire new-provinces hoop-lah is just a political sham, and we have already enough things to worry about.

 

[sparklingway]

Some basic, old recommendations:-

Dividing Punjab

By Umar Tosheeb • Apr 5th, 2010

There are growing calls for division of Punjab from different people for different reasons–surprisingly very few from Punjab itself. The loudest has been to make a separate province for Seriaki area of Southern Punjab because of economic and social reasons. As we saw during the debate over Paktunkwa, the problem is not just unique to Punjab; it is throughout Pakistan.

First, let’s look into Pakhtunkwa. As debate over its name showed, there are two separate regions of province, having two separate languages and ethnic groups. One area ethnically and linguistically majority Pakhtun and the other Hazaran Hindko. When and if political parties agree to make more provinces, I think Hazara would be an ideal candidate for separate province.

There is similar situation in Balochistan. The northern part of the province is majority Pakhtun—even city of Quetta itself. The central/ southern part of the province is majority Balochi. The northern part of Balochistan could be added to Pakhtunkwa, because of its ethnic and linguistic similarity to Pakhtunkwa. I think Pakhtunkwa people would have no problem with giving up Hazara and getting northern Baluchistan and eventually tribal areas as well. This would make people in Paktunkwa better preserve their language and culture without any major objection from any other group in the province. This would also make Balochis an absolute majority in the new province, and they will be able to preserve their language and culture better. If the trends continue as they are right now, it would not be very far-off when Baloch will be minority in Baluchistan—currently they are only about 55% of the province’s population. This can be a good solution to preserving Balochi language and culture.

There is no doubt that Punjab is too large, although it does not have any significant ethnic or linguistic differences throughout the province. The Punjabi dialects slightly changes throughout the whole province, if we go from Rawalpindi all the way to Rahim Yar Khan–where it becomes Seriaki. All the dialects are perfectly understood throughout the province—even Seriaki. There is still need for division of the province if not for linguistic but for economic reasons.

Punjab can be divided into three different province and not just two as suggested by most people. The Hazar division of Paktunkwa–Rawalpindi division all the way down to Jehlum–and Azad Kashmir are similar demographically having similar dialects. If Hazar is made into a separate province, it would be too small, but if it is added to Rawalpindi division, it can become a proper separate province. Azad Kashmir can be added to this province later after its eventual status is decided. Mirpuri, Hindko and Pahri are all similar dialects of Punjabi. This province will add together people with similar ethnic and linguistic history.

The second province can be created out of central Punjab with its capital Lahore bordering all the way to Seriaki speaking area. The third province out of Punjab can be created by adding Seriaki speaking area and Bhawalpur, Bhwalnagar around Multan.

The similar can be done about Sind–two provinces can be created out of one province. Karachi and Hyderabad being one and rest of the Sind being another. I know very little about geographic history or even feasibility of this, but if this is done, it will create a majority Urdu-speaking province and an overwhelmingly majority Sindhi-speaking province. For the first time, Urdu will become a majority language in a province, also being the national language of Pakistan.

I know people will have lots of problems with creating these new provinces, but if done, it will solve the linguistic and ethnic problems once and for all. None of the languages and ethnicity will be threatened, all the ethnicities and the languages will have an absolute majority in their new respective provinces—creation of 3 more province will end the ethnic politics forever in Pakistan. None of the languages and cultures will be threatened anymore. No province will be too large.