There is lot of hue and cry these days about dividing the provinces to create new provinces which would further promote provincialism.
The famous clarion call of unity, faith and discipline by the Quaid-e-Azam has now been forgotten in the din of division. It is therefore pertinent to examine the logic of one unit for West Pakistan in the days of late Ayub Khan which was dismantled by a stroke of pen by the drunkard late Yahya Khan without any serious discussion. The result has been the rise of monster of provincialism that is eating into the vitals of Pakistan.
I remember having served as a regional director of Quetta, Kalat region, in a professional department during late sixties when even the names of provinces had disappeared and Divisional Commissioners were appointed for each division while regional directors of line departments looked after the regions.
There was no question of a Balochi, Sindhi, Punjabi or Pakhtunkhwa while one provincial assembly of West Pakistan decided the issues of one unit with a single governor.
I remember the professional director of Animal Husbandry Department at Lahore used to tour Quetta and Sibi with the advantage of development guided at a higher scientific level while these days Balochistan is suffering from lack of expertise in education and technical departments.
Projects like Tarbela dam and Mangla dam took off during the days of one unit but not a single megadam could be built after the break-up of one unit due to bickering of smaller provinces while Punjab dominated the scene at the chagrin of smaller units. Now with the further division of existing units into further subunits would open a can of worms that would make it next to impossible launching a project like KBD that has been held back due to illogical opposition of smaller units.
The overall uniform standard of education and development has suffered in smaller units while the benefit of lesser number of ministers and governors has not been extended to the country by mushrooming of ministers like in Balochistan where all the 46 MPAs are ministers that entail huge expenditure and inefficiency. There ought to be a second look at the break up of one unit that was once West Pakistan under one governor the late formidable Nawab Amir Muhammad Khan of Kalabagh.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
