A Case for Administrative Reorganisation

A woman in Dera Bugti spends hours waiting for a doctor in Quetta which is several hundred kilometers away. Another one in Muzaffargarh leaves education due to lack of public university in her district, while there are 16 public universities of Punjab in Lahore alone. All of these are not isolated incidents but are the inevitable results of the governance system designed for a small and simple Pakistan.

The Numbers Tell the Real Story

Punjab governs roughly 129.3 million people across 41 districts. Sindh manages 55.7 million people across 30. Numbers this large would strain any government on earth, and Pakistan’s provincial administrations are no exception. Density gaps compound the problem: Sindh ranges from 90.6 people per square kilometre in Tharparkar to 55,396 in Karachi Central, a 612-times difference within a single province. Punjab’s literacy rate swings from 43.74% in Muzaffargarh to 93.22% in Rawalpindi, a 50-point gap that no province-wide policy can meaningfully close.

Balochistan illustrates the crisis most starkly. It spans 347,190 square kilometres, nearly 44% of Pakistan’s landmass, yet holds only 14.89 million people at a density of 35.6 per square kilometre. Roughly 3.4 to 3.5 million children, about 69% of the province’s school-age population, sit outside any classroom. Over a fifth of its schools are non-functional. Forty-one percent of its primary schools run on a single teacher. Its doctor-to-population ratio falls worse than 1 per 1,000 residents. Governing a territory this vast and this underserved from a single capital in Quetta is not administration. It is neglect dressed up as a map.

Distance Kills, and 2022 Proved It

Floods in 2022 have made an abstract argument very real. Response came to those with better administrative capacity quicker, and it came slow to those with less capacity. Residents of far-flung districts have lost their homes, their means of making a living, and in some cases their lives because of their distances. No matter how far the provincial capital is in the case of emergencies, it does not make a request to arrive.

Institutions Cluster Where Power Already Sits

Higher education in Pakistan follows power, not population. Eighteen of Punjab’s 41 districts have no public university at all. Seven merged districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly part of FATA, remain without one too. Institutions concentrate in Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi because provincial governments naturally invest closest to where they sit. New provinces would create new capitals, and new capitals would demand new universities, hospitals, and civil-service postings in regions long treated as peripheral. South Punjab illustrates the cost of exclusion clearly: the region holds roughly 30% of Punjab’s population yet claims only 12 to 15% of federal-job representation. A dedicated province would give South Punjab its own budget, its own civil service quota, and its own seat at the table where resources get decided.

Pakistan Has Already Walked This Road

The end of the One Unit system in 1970 and the division of power to provinces through the 18th amendment further solidified the federation. The unification of FATA with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 shows how the map of Pakistan can be changed to suit actual demands. Balochistan has increased the number of its districts from 26 to 42 by 2026 since 1998 showing that there is an increasing need for administration nearer to the people despite the absence of new provinces.

A Federation Measured by Reach, Not Size

While Article 140A obligates the provinces to devolve power, successive governments have been inconsistent in its application, showing how well-intentioned policies cannot survive the test of time when there is no restructuring of institutions in place. The creation of new provinces will ensure this, as it will give regions their budget, their quotas of civil servants, and responsibility for results. There is a cost to reform, and every passing year sees an increase in its toll. A child in Tharparkar or Kech waits for a school, a hospital, and a government that is accessible.

It would not matter how many provinces Pakistan has on its map. It would matter if the mother of Dera Bugti gets her doctor, if the student of Muzaffargarh gets his university, and if the distance finally ceases to dictate whose Pakistan it is and whose it is not. The creation of new provinces through true consensus and realistic fiscal planning is among the most straightforward ways to that end.