With the twentieth amendment bill laid before the Lower House of parliament, political sloganeering on creation of new provinces is all set to be exposed as the bill would prove a test case for the commitment of political parties who have been playing on the popular wave of carving out smaller provincial units.
Almost all major political parties of the country, including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), PML-Q, JUI-F and others have been using the media to voice demand to create smaller units, while the PML-N and ANP quietly rejected the demand, but none of the former parties took practical step for the cause of decentralisation of powers. Rather, these parties’ governments in the centre and provinces also violated the constitution by not holding local government elections since coming into power in 2008.
But it was Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNAs, led by Wasim Akhtar, who took the lead on Tuesday by introducing a bill in the National Assembly session as a private member bill, seeking amendment in the constitution to simplify the procedure for creation of new provinces.
The bill titled, “The Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill, 2012” proposed amendments in Article 1, 51,106 and 239 of the constitution for creation of new provinces ‘Hazara’ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ‘Southern Punjab’ in Punjab. The bill also provided holding of referendum for one or more provinces to ascertain the public aspirations about new provinces.
However, this is not first bill submitted in parliament for simplifying the procedure for creation of new provinces, as Senator Mohammed Ali Durrani had submitted such a bill on June 25, 2009, with the Senate Secretariat seeking amendment in the constitution for facilitating the process of creating new provinces with a simple majority of the parliament.
He had also requested the parliamentary committee on constitutional amendments, which was led by Raza Rabbani, to include his bill as 19th amendment, but it was rejected by the committee due to the narrow-minded politicians included in the committee.
The MQM bill also projected that the allocation of general seats and seats for women to the newly carved out provinces, as provided under clause (1) of Article 51 and clause (1) of Article 106, shall be made on the basis of the population in the same proportion as it exists in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
Wasim Akhtar told Pakistan Today he had moved the bill feeling the sense of deprivation in South Punjab and Hazara areas but the major political parties had adopted double standards.
“In the National Assembly, these parties don’t oppose idea of new provinces but in provincial assemblies, they even don’t allow tabling such a resolution, let alone talking about a piece of legislation,” he said while referring to a joint resolution by the PPP and PML-Q tabled in the Punjab Assembly for the creation of Southern Punjab province that was turned down by the speaker.
The same happened in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly where the ANP-backed government did not allow a resolution for Hazara province.
“Just take example of South Punjab where there are only two universities while in central Punjab only, there are 30 universities. This discriminatory attitude needs to be shunned and this is also base for rising voices for new provinces,” he asserted. The overgrowth of population almost in geometrical proportion, increased demand for delivery of social services and the inaccessibility of the chief executive, cabinet members and the bureaucracy including the law enforcement agencies, are the factors that have rendered dispensation of justice to the people of the far-flung areas almost impossible, the bill says. Besides, administrative inconvenience, the cultural and social diversity within the ideological unity also necessitates grater harmony with a psychological bias, the bill added.
Meanwhile, the same day, a young PPP MNA from Okara, Khurram Jahangir Wattoo, also introduced a bill on the same subject and with the same title seeking new province namely South Punjab.
However, the idea of creation of new provinces was actually conceived and floated in June 2009 by Senator Mohammed Ali Durrani, who also served as information minister from 2005-2007.
“My bill had sought making the procedure of formation/creation of new provinces simple and was reflective of wishes of the people of the country for faster development in the country. It is imperative to form new provinces of a manageable size. This will not only make the administration easy but the under-developed areas will be able to make rapid progress,” Senator Durrani told Pakistan Today.
“The foremost need today is adaptability to the demands of the changing times and to introduce international administrative practices into our system. To better address to the needs of growing populations, nations around the world have formed new and smaller administrative units. But we have failed to do so since 1947. We urgently need to follow the success story adopted by our neighbours decades back,” he added.
He said developed countries made considerable efforts to promote good governance by forming smaller administrative units for better delivery system of justice, basic human rights and development.
However, he added, the greed of ruling elites in Pakistan to centralise power has remained a constant factor for over more than half a century.
Considering the huge population and weak institutions of the country, power needs to be decentralized, he said. From USA to Spain, decentralisation has played a major role in democratic development and high quality of governance.
“But there is a tendency of our leadership to put more and more resources to the federal and provincial capitals rather than devolving them to the under developed cities and districts for the common good of the people,” he added.
Senator Durrani said even minor decisions were being made by every chief minister and for a population of 81.5 million in Punjab, there is one health secretary, one education minister, one finance minister and one housing secretary; who cant even look after the affairs of central Punjab.