POLITICAL leaders look all set to cut provinces down to match their own sphere of influence. Some among them, Imran Khan being most prominent, are sitting on the edge but seem ready to succumb.

The guiding force of demand for more provinces is their electoral calculations and ministerial aspirations. The people, economy and public peace figure nowhere.

Ironically enough, while prime minister Gilani trumpets the victory of his party candidate in the Multan by-election as a vindication of his demand for a Seraiki province – and also, perhaps, his defiance of the judiciary -- the voters had rejected both by a turn-out of less than 20 per cent against the usual 40 per cent in the past general elections.

Assuming that five per cent of the votes cast were bogus and the fact that the prime minister’s candidate polled no more than seven per cent, neck and neck with the rival PML-N candidate, and it was in Multan, where the passion for a Seraiki province is at its peak, shows the people’s indifference to the demand for a province of their own.

Nawaz Sharif finding it politically difficult to support the unity of Punjab talks of splitting the province into three or four provinces. The number may grow larger.

If southern Punjab can be a province, it would be hard to reject a demand; if it arises, for yet another province comprising the zone between Jhelum and Attock which is inhabited by the people who are lingually and culturally as different from the Punjabis of Lahore and Sialkot as are the Seraiki speakers.

The demand for Hazara, Bahawalpur and Karachi provinces are already there. One wonders why a similar demand has not arisen from Lasbela which is quite distinct from the rest of Balochistan. And also from Chitral which is inhabited by people who belong to a wholly different race and speak a language (Khowar) which the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cannot even understand.

Political and bureaucratic aspirations and patronage aside, the country can be best governed as a unitary state if a constitutionally protected and empowered local government system is established alongside.

Present-day Pakistan as a one unit was much better governed, and more economically, than the smallest of the four provinces is now. At Lahore, where there are only 12 or so ministers and as many secretaries. Concentration of politics and officialdom is a drag and not an asset in public service.

The one-unit experiment did not succeed because the local councils were not directly elected, were not given enough powers and, to boot, were headed by civil servants or retired soldiers. Still it worked much better, and economically, than the four provinces work today.

A unitary parliamentary government at the centre with directly-elected local councils, aided but not controlled by a neutral bureaucracy, is the real answer to the people’s aspirations and also a solution for their economic deprivation.

KUNWAR IDRIS Karachi

No new units

THE movement by some politicians, both in the government and in the opposition, to make new provinces is highly dangerous.

New provinces will further divide the people of the country. Instead, politicians should try to unite Pakistan. Obviously, the motives of these politicians in demanding new provinces are totally self-serving, with disregard for the good of the country and its people.

Ethnic cleansing or attempted ethnic cleansing has already started in Karachi, interior Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. New provinces will put Pakistan on the slippery slope towards a breakup of the entire country.

Instead of new provinces, the existing provinces should be abolished as they are a major source of conflict and disunity in the country.

A unitary system of government, instead of a federal system, should be established to unite the country. The country may then be divided into non-ethnic administrative areas for easier administration.

One way of doing this is, after abolishing the provinces, the present divisions and districts could remain as administrative units.

ABID SHAIKH Karachi