The long-running debate over creating new provinces in Pakistan reverberated through the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, as a Pakistan Peoples Party legislator separately demanded that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issue a formal policy statement on where the federal government actually stands on the issue.
A Debate That Has Simmered for Weeks
The renewed exchange follows weeks of back-and-forth after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi reignited the issue by declaring that Pakistan’s existing administrative structure no longer served the country well. Since then, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has repeatedly pushed for Karachi to be made a separate province, while the Pakistan Peoples Party, which governs Sindh, has firmly opposed any division of the province despite both parties being coalition partners in the federal government.
PPP Secretary General Nayyar Bokhari has said any new province or change to provincial boundaries must strictly follow the constitutional process, requiring a two-thirds majority in the relevant provincial assembly, the National Assembly and the Senate. He has repeatedly challenged the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to act on a resolution for a South Punjab province that has been pending before the Punjab Assembly, arguing that if PML-N supports new provinces, it should start in its own backyard.
Calls for the PM to Take a Position
The demand for a formal policy statement from Shehbaz reflects growing frustration among coalition partners over the government’s lack of a clear, unified position on the issue. Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmed Khan has previously said the province debate should not be treated as taboo, noting that PPP’s support keeps the coalition government in power both in Punjab and at the Centre.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has struck a more cautious tone, saying his party supports the principle of new provinces but that there is currently no political consensus or practical progress, calling the debate a distraction from more pressing issues. Other parties, including the Pashtunkhwa National Awami Party, have argued that creating new provinces would divide the public rather than solve underlying governance problems.
Why It Matters
With PML-N’s own senior leadership, including Nawaz Sharif himself, previously signalling that the issue should not be publicly debated, and coalition partners now openly demanding clarity, the government faces mounting pressure to state a definitive position rather than let the debate continue to play out through dueling statements from individual ministers and party leaders. Any actual move to create new provinces would require amending multiple articles of the Constitution, a process that has not formally begun despite months of political rhetoric on all sides.
