THE number of provinces in the country, or whatever remains of it after separation of East Pakistan, is practically the same as it was in 1947, except that the population is now nearly six times of what it was back then.

And this fact alone necessitates creation of additional provinces to help the administration, as well as to bring the government closer to people.

It could even be argued that while keeping the number of provinces same as before, better administration and bringing the government closer to people could be achieved through the installation of duly empowered local governments.

However, due to the lust for power and the passion for control over larger budgets, the possibility of provinces agreeing to have duly empowered local governments are practically nil. We have seen how, by repeatedly hacking out the local government act, both the Punjab and Sindh governments have stripped the local governments of nearly all their powers and the financial resources that go with these.

This brings us back to the proposition that to improve administrations, to remove people’s grievances and to bring governments closer to the people, the only practical proposition is to have more provinces in the country.

The clear divide between rural and urban Sindh makes it imperative to use sense rather than passion, admit this fact and create additional provinces. In fact, during its last tenure the Punjab government passed bills for the creation of southern Punjab and Bahawalpur provinces.

With the Sharif brothers ruling Punjab and in power at the centre, one would have thought they would have gone ahead and implemented the resolution. Instead, they have chosen to bury it.

Karachi has additional problems. It is the only city which has grown from a sleepy port town of around half a million to over

20 million. This has come about through migration of Urdu-speaking people at the time of partition, natural growth in population, as well as migration to Karachi from rural Sindh and the rest of the country.

While the bulk of Karachi’s population consists of Urdu-speaking people, it has a substantial presence of people from interior Sindh, Pakhtuns, Punjabis and Baloch. The population mix creates additional problems in the city.

Therefore, for smooth functioning of the city, all ethnicities need to have proper representation in the body governing and managing the city.

Another handicap of the city is that in the absence of a census after 1998, the substantial increase in Karachi’s
population and the extent of change in the urban-rural ratio of Sindh population is not reflected in the seats in the assemblies allotted to the respective regions.

Thus Karachi and urban Sindh are ruled from interior Sindh by PPP which has a small presence in Karachi and feels no obligation to serve it.

Also, we often hear of municipal workers not getting their salaries because of shortage of cash, but, according to reports, the government did not hesitate to draw Rs15 million from state funds to arrange a public meeting in Lyari.

This shows the Sindh government’s interest in Karachi.

If the authorities are serious, they have to find a way to give the control and management of the city to the stakeholders in the city: the Urdu-speaking people, Pakhtuns, Sindhis, Punjabis and the Baloch who are residents here. And one sure way of achieving this objective is to make Karachi a province.

S. R. H. Hashmi

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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