TAXILA: Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik has said the creation of new provinces or administrative units alone cannot fix Pakistan’s governance problems, stressing that sweeping reforms in the bureaucracy must precede any such move.

Speaking to journalists during the inauguration of a private business centre in Wah Cantt, he said administrative reform had become an urgent requirement and the country could not achieve sustainable progress without restructuring the existing bureaucratic system.

“Creating new provinces or additional administrative units will not, by itself, solve governance problems,” he said.

He stressed that meaningful bureaucratic reforms were essential to improving service delivery and making government institutions more efficient.

Mr Malik said the distribution of authority, responsibility and accountability within the state machinery needed to be redefined to ensure that public complaints were addressed promptly and government institutions functioned efficiently.

He said the national economy was gradually moving towards stability, with improvements in several areas. The government was pursuing further reforms and policy measures to consolidate these gains.

The state minister said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir were playing an important role in efforts to strengthen the economy and steer the country towards economic transformation.

The minister however cautioned that economic stability was not a one-off achievement but a continuous process requiring consistent policies, long-term planning and structural reforms.

On Pakistan’s foreign policy, Mr Aqeel said the country had played an important diplomatic role in efforts to ease tensions between the US and Iran.

Turning to the Kashmir elections and the political situation, the minister described the exchange of statements among political parties as a normal feature of democratic politics.

Responding to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks about the “countdown” of PML-N, he said Rana Sanaullah had already responded to the statement.

The state minister said the political picture would become clearer after completion of all phases of the Kashmir electoral process at the end of August, adding that he believed the PPP would also face a political “countdown” thereafter.

Commenting on remarks attributed to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Mr Aqeel said Mr Naqvi remained a member of the government and continued to perform his duties as federal interior minister.

He said the ‘remarks had been taken out of context’ and maintained that shortcomings in the existing system were well known.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026