KARACHI: “Why is fixing law and order important? Why is controlling corruption important? Why is merit important? Why do we need competent people at the helm of affairs? Why do we need to build dams in Pakistan? Why is clean water important? So many questions but who has the answers? We know the issues but to solve them we need the visionary leader who is nowhere to be found,” said retired Lt Gen Moinuddin Haider at the lunch of the book, Soobay Kyun Zaroori Hain (Why Provinces are Important), by Khalil Ahmed Nanitalwala here on Monday.

“Balochistan has a Pashtun belt. There are Brahvis in Balochistan also. Breaking that huge province into three or four may solve its problems. There is the Hazara Division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Why can’t they have a province of their own? Making more provinces will only strengthen Pakistan, not weaken it,” he said.

Senior journalist Mahmood Sham said that the author had raised an important question of whether there should be more provinces in the country at a time when the country itself didn’t seem important to the provinces.

Rizwan Siddiqui of the Arts Council of Pakistan said that whether Pakistan should have more provinces was a question to be pondered by the refugees who came here, the Punjabis, the Pashtuns, Baloch, Hazara people who feel they have been deprived or the Sindhis who believe that their province only belongs to them and no one else has a right to it. “And if we bring up this question about more provinces we are seen as traitors. But there is Afghanistan on one side that has 34 provinces and on the other side there is India which has some 40 provinces and they seem to be managing quite well. Provinces should not be based on language or ethnicity. They should be about giving people rights,” he said.

Advertising mogul Tahir A. Khan said that the thinking is that you are to win the elections from one province and control the country from there while the rest of the three provinces no longer matter. So many countries of the world have made more provinces to distribute power in order to manage the affairs better and improve administration to let their country prosper,” he said.

Finally, Mr Nanitalwala, the author of the book, said that the Ansari Commission had suggested 17 provinces including Islamabad. “This means four divisions of each of the four provinces that we have now,” he said.

“When you have two children, you are comfortable living in a flat. But when you have six children wouldn’t you want to seek bigger accommodation? The same is the case with the provinces. More people and different people need a place of their own which cares about their needs. But the government doesn’t see it that way as it wants to keep its cash cow. We lost East Pakistan and we still haven’t learnt anything,” he said.

“Believe me, 17 assemblies will cut corruption in Pakistan into half. Sindh has so many Urdu-speaking people it has never had an Urdu-speaking chief minister. Therefore, we are expected to pay hefty taxes but our problems such as health facilities, education, our right to protection, etc., are not addressed. Instead we have this 80-year-old man. What do we do with him and what can he do for us?” the author questioned.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2014