QUETTA: The National Party (NP) has suggested that any move to create new provinces must be based on the consent of the people rather than decisions taken behind closed doors.

“Only the people have the authority to decide whether new provinces should be created,” NP central leader and former senator Mir Tahir Bizenjo said while talking to reporters on Wednesday. He warned that dividing provinces into dozens of administrative units through decisions made in closed rooms could have serious consequences.

Mr Bizenjo said reports suggested that major political parties and religious leaders had already been taken into confidence over the matter. He added that the real issue was not population or the size of a province but poor governance, corruption, exploitation and extravagant rule.

The NP leader recalled that before the arrival of the British, Sindh was ruled by the Talpurs, parts of Balochistan by the Khans, while Punjab was under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose rule also extended over large parts of present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said Pashtun areas of Balochistan were separated from Afghanistan under the Treaty of Gandamak, imposed on the Afghan rulers, and subsequently incorporated into what became known as British Balochistan, along with some areas of the Kalat State.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2026