For decades, every discussion about creating new provinces in Pakistan has followed the same predictable script. The debate quickly becomes one of language, ethnicity and political identity. Emotions replace reason, political interests overshadow national priorities, and another opportunity for meaningful administrative reform slips away.

The problem is not the idea of creating new provinces. The problem is the basis on which we have been trying to create them.

A country’s administrative boundaries are created to help governments govern efficiently, deliver public services and promote development. As population expands, economies evolve, and cities grow into regional powerhouses, administrative structures must also evolve. Countries that fail to modernise their governance systems inevitably find themselves trying to solve twenty-first-century challenges with twentieth-century institutions. Today, Pakistan is home to nearly 250 million people. Within the next two decades, that figure will rise significantly. Yet our administrative framework has changed very little, even as new industrial corridors, logistics networks and urban centres have transformed the country’s economic landscape.

Instead of creating provinces based on linguistic or ethnic identities, Pakistan should begin considering Economic Administrative Regions, administrative units designed around governance, geography, economic integration and efficient public service delivery.

It is time to stop asking how many provinces Pakistan should have.

It is time to stop asking how many provinces Pakistan should have.

The principle is simple. Every region should revolve around a strong economic anchor city connected to........

© Daily Times