Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has stirred debate in the country over the question of carving out new provinces. “The system we are living under has collapsed,” he said in July. “The only solution is to take [the matter of] administrative units, provinces or whatever you may call it, to the public.”
Others have spoken on the matter as well. While Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has called for greater decentralization and devolution of power to the grassroots, the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, pointed to Pakistan’s dramatic population growth even as the country continues to operate with only four provinces. He added that any administrative “reset” should be undertaken through constitutional methods, legal procedures, and political representatives.
The timing and personalities involved make the debate politically significant. It touches on Pakistan’s military-civilian relationship, its hybrid political system, inter-provincial relations and the historical forces that have shaped the country.
Naqvi is often seen as a figure with close ties with the military establishment — the latter is perceived as central to his political rise. Given his political trajectory and the military establishment’s immediate and subtle reinforcement of his statement, it is widely believed that the military is broadly sympathetic to, if not supportive of, the position that Naqvi articulated.
