8/3/2019 Tackling Pakistan's Provincial Integration

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The Great Provincial DivideAsif Ameer January 12th, 2012

There have been recent talks about creating a newProvince for better administration for the Saraiki-speaking citizens. Apparently, dividing citizens of a

country based on language would serve betteradministrative purpose. Lets accept this argument for thesake of simplicity and step back into the time whenPakistan was created. There were Sindh, Punjab,Balochistan and the NWFP. All provinces based on raceand language. Sixty-five years have passed since thecreation and Pakistan has yet to reconcile its racialidentity. Has the Government not learnt anything?

It absolutely has. Politicians are born with the instincts to rule, no-matter what the cost. Divideand rule - always comes in handy. If a Government, which thrives on feudalism, can divide onrace/language for 65 years, theres no better way to expand the already proven policy of divide

and rule.

If the Government is truly interested in addressing administration efficiencies and want tounite Pakistan, heres the solution to address both these issues within the same policyframework. Consolidate all four language based provinces under the Federal Charter. Divide allthe land in Pakistan into 1 square mile grids. Now simply add up the grids till the populationheadcount reaches 100,000. Make that collection of grids, with 100,000 headcounts, amunicipality. Each municipality should have its own Court, Police/School/Water/FireDepartment and a Sales tax code for revenue generation to fund services to its citizens. Themunicipalities would hold their own elections and those elected officials would in that way beavailable to the needs and concerns of the citizens of those municipalities. This samemunicipality would also tie into the Federal Voting process. No longer would a Federal

Government be responsible for keeping a count of all the citizens in the whole country. Everymunicipality would be responsible for keeping a track on headcounts within its municipality.

This is one example of the many practical solutions available to Pakistan. The problem isnt thelack of solutions. The problem is the lack of trust in Leadership and the political capital. Its notenough to elect a leader with a vision but to stay focused and remained involved. Most of thetimes, its the voters that turn against the very leader they have elected because too manyvoters benefit from the existing system in place.

If Western countries can absorb immigrants of all different backgrounds, why does Pakistanseem to have a problem consolidating identity in its citizens? As long as the Pakistani identityremains divided, reforms in education, economy and healthcare are pointless.

Pakistani Citizens should demand these mandates from their elected representatives. Teachersshould teach their students of ideas beyond what the syllabus covers. Maybe not today, put letsplan for tomorrow, if we want to see a tomorrow.

Asif Ameer trades equities, bonds and derivatives in the International Market. He can

be reached via Twitter @AsifAmeer_AP