PAKISTAN’S governance structure is often at the centre of national debate.

From questions of provincial autonomy to disaster management, and now, calls to redraw the country’s internal boundaries, each of these discussions is rooted in legitimate concerns: unequal development, sluggish service delivery, and political imbalance. Yet too often, the solutions proposed are reactive, fragmented, or short-sighted.

Instead of piecemeal fixes like carving out new provinces, separating disaster functions, or rolling back devolution we need a deeper conversation about what kind of governance model Pakistan really needs. Because behind every institutional failure lies a more fundamental problem: a state that struggles to function effectively at both the centre and the grassroots.

The 18th Amendment in 2010, was hailed as a democratic milestone. The amendment was designed to empower provinces, dismantle centralised authority, and bring governance closer to the people. More than a decade later, however, it’s time to ask a difficult question: has the devolution of power come at the cost of effective policymaking? In reality it has led to uneven policy implementation across provinces, created jurisdictional ambiguity and exposed the institutional fragility of our system.

The provinces, suddenly saddled with vast responsibilities, were neither administratively equipped nor financially ready. The federal government, stripped of much of its role in social sectors, lacked the tools to coordinate national-level strategies. The result: fragmented policy, duplicated efforts, and weak implementation.

In times of........

© Dawn