GENERALLY, people have started expressing reservations regarding the 18th Constitutional Amendment that was passed by parliament in 2010, which gave overwhelming powers of self-governance, administration and financial autonomy to the provinces.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister seems to be in a defiant mood and is challenging the writ of the state and has even threatened to attack the prison where his party leader is passing days in incarceration.

The situation in Sindh is not in the control of the provincial government as the infamous riverine area has started to look like a state within a state. The gov-ernment is reluctant to take any action itself or give specific powers to the par-amilitary Rangers.

In Balochistan, the situation has gone from bad to worse. Security forces are being attacked, innocent people are being killed on linguistic and ethnic basis, and Chinese engineers and workers have been killed.

Unfortunately, the current provincial government is unable to control the situ-ation, and is reluctant to call in the army by invoking Article 245. With all this happening, the federal government remains powerless, leaving the people to suffer. It is time that serious thought was given to amending the 18th Amendment.

Malik ul Quddoos
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2024