We Need More Provinces in Pakistan
By Dr Ghayur Ayub
London, UK
During the last days of the PPP government, a voice from Hazara resurfaced demanding a separate Hazara province. It was the voice of the white bearded Haider Zaman Khan who had been struggling for a separate province for many years. The independent media picked it up and spread it like a wild fire. Soon, the media-addicted public started asking for divisions of all the provinces. Two provincial assemblies and the national assembly adopted resolutions in favour of four new provinces.
Pakistan, which was an economic role model for countries like South Korea in the early sixties, lost that status because of a long list of short-sighted politicians who played in the hands of a few greedy army generals derailing democracy and making the field ready for repeated army takeovers.
9/11 gave a new turn to global politics dividing the world into Muslims and non-Muslims. The Muslims were diagnosed as terrorists, thanks to the Wahabi-driven theology of rich Arab monarchs. Pakistan was caught in the middle because of its sensitive geographical placement on the map and it being the only Muslim country with nukes.
In a situation like this when sectarianism, ethnic discord and terrorism are gaining strength, Pakistan as a state has to re-evaluate its priorities, otherwise it will sink in a whirlpool created by its military-cum-civilian policy-makers.
To begin with, we should understand the principle ofthe TwoNation Theory under which Pakistan was carved out of greater India. It was the genius of Mr Jinnah who used religion to separate the Muslim minority of the sub-continent from the Hindu majority. Reading his writings and listening to his speeches it becomes clear that he wanted a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent where they could not be exploited by the Hindu majority. Influenced by Iqbal’s concept of Muslim nation, he motivated the Muslim masses to regard themselves as one nation, linking religion with nationalism thus making the movement politically nationalistic. Otherwise, he himself was neither a practising Muslim nor a fanatic religious hate-monger. The Muslim religious parties of that time were aware of Jinnah’s plans and were fervently against the concept of Pakistan.
After the creation of Pakistan, Mr Jinnah’s dream was destroyed by the ill-coordinated civil-military relationship that resulted in the loss of a major portion of the country in early seventies. Instead of giving a fair chance to ethnicity-driven nationalistic Bengalis to play their due role in the country's politics, the politicians from West Pakistan drew a line between ‘them and us’ and made them play a marginal role. They felt deprived which created a gap that kept on widening until it reached a critical mass of no return.
The rest is history.
The sad part of it is that our top politicians haven't learnt any lesson from the tragedy and keep following the course which disintegrated the country in the first place. They ignore the sterling principle of Mr Jinnah who projected religion in the garb of nationalism or vice versa. They forget that Pakistan has many Muslim nationalities with strong cultural differences. Such feelings are surfacing in the remaining Pakistan and the politicians are busy amassing personal wealth through corrupt practices and closing their eyes to the lessons of history.
Recent history has shown resentment among the public of smaller provinces after seeing the inequalities that have been committed by the political custodians of a large province. Luckily, it hasn’t reached a critical mass yet. But if the self-centered political players don’t realise this fact, soon the resentment will touch the critical mass and we will find ourselves in worse conditions than we were in early seventies.
The question is can it be prevented.
To answer that, we must revisit the principle followed by Mr Jinnah by making more provinces based on ethnic nationalities without challenging the country’s integrity, people’s religion and ongoing democracy. Once these provinces are given self-governance, the burden will be shifted on to them and the mounting grievances will fade away in today’s cyber space world, where facts and figures cannot be hidden for too long. If the politicians want to see a progressive Pakistan, they must follow that principle and find that nine provinces can be carved out on ethnical statistics as follows:
1. North Pashtunistan: to include the current KP and FATA excluding Hazara and Chitral, with the capital at Peshawar
2. South Pashtunistan: to include majority Pashtun region of the current north Baluchistan with its capital at Quetta
3. Chitral: to include current Chitral with its capital at Chitral City
4. Hazara: to include current Hazara and Kohistan with its capital at Abbotabad.
5. Gilgit-Baltistan: to include current Gilgit-Baltistan with its capital at Gilgit.
6. North Punjab: to include all the current north Punjab excluding the Saraiki belt with its capital at Lahore
7. South Punjab: to include all the current southern Saraiki Punjab with its capital at Multan
8. Sindh: to include all the current Sindh with its capital at Karachi
9. Baluchistan: to include all the non-Pashtun areas of the current Baluchistan with its capital at Gawader
As such a change would need constitutional amendments, the entire political map has to be re-worked. Among other things, the provinces may be renamed as the autonomous states. Thus, Pakistan will be a federation of nine autonomous states with its federal capital at Islamabad
• Each state should be self-generating and disbursing its own revenues. The shortfalls will be compensated by the federation through decades-old NFC award and the 18th Amendment.
• Each state will have its own assembly similar to what exists now in the present provinces.
• The federation will be responsible for the national security of the entire country, the foreign policy, and the education and health sectors. It will also maintain a single currency.
The new Pakistan will erase the myth or reality that the biggest province has always deprived the smaller provinces of their rights and privileges as it controls the federal government because of the number of seats it holds in theNational Assembly.
The Pashtuns of northern Baluchistan will attain their identity as Pashtuns and will not be confused with the Baluchis. At the same time, the Baluchis will not be confused with Pashtuns as is done inthe present set-up of Baluchistan. Since Quetta is majority Pashtun it will go to South Pashtunistan. Baluchistan can move its capital to Gawader which has a tremendous future as a strategic and trade hub for all other federating states and the entire region.
The new Pakistan will nurture trade, economics, inter-state political understanding and intra-state ethnic and cultural harmony. It all will be done in the spirit of Islam and the requirements of democracy.
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