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IF history is to be a teacher rather than a repetitive tragedy, we must never forget that Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution, the very document that defines the country as a federal republic, was not written in a vacuum. It was a settlement born from the painful realisation after the 1971 cataclysm that a multi-ethnic, diverse country cannot be held together by coercive centralism. It can only endure an equitable partnership among its constituent units. Pakistan’s Constitution recognises this balance. The National Finance Commission is not a favour from the centre to the provinces. It is a constitutional mechanism for distributing national revenues between the federation and the provinces. While this federal character was further strengthened by the 18th Amendment, voices have lately emerged to roll back this framework in an attempt to reintroduce fiscal centralism. This may be dangerous.
There was a time when separatist narratives, such as nationalist movements in Sindh and KP, held significant sway. Today, these movements have lost their ideological traction. Even the lingering insurgency in Balochistan would struggle to sustain if stripped of foreign patronage. This mainstreaming did not occur by accident; it was the result of constitutional evolution and political willingness to give provinces due space in governance. The abolition of the Concurrent Legislative List reflected the realisation that citizens do not experience governance through abstract federal offices. They experience it through schools, hospitals, roads, local services and district administration. If the federal government now attempts to squeeze the provinces under the pretext of tightening its own fiscal belt, it may inadvertently breathe new life into dying centrifugal forces that feed on alienated governance.
