One of the major issues that is going on through discussions is the making of new provinces. Is it a good sign for the progress of the country or not? Making new provinces means an another way for the distribution of the powers among people of different regions.

Although Pakistan has four large provinces and powers which are given to those provinces have not been distributed in the respective provinces. For example, when we talk about the budget allocated to the respective provinces, these are invested in capital of each province rather than distributing it equally. In Punjab most of the budget is invested in Islamabad and Lahore, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa it’s in Peshawar, in Sindh in Karachi and the same in Quetta in Balochistan. Now tell me who cares about all the other regions in each province, other than the capitals?

So why not to divide the provinces and make smaller regions with an aim to divide powers equally. If such large provinces would be divided than each of it could get its share and obviously the benefits would also be given to people other than those who do not live in capital. In this way we can have more progress nationally and it is beneficial for the progress for country. So I would like to suggest to favour the division of the large provinces rather than having mass geographical area with larger population where there is no equality of rights amongst the people.

NASEEMA PERVEEN

Islamabad