TRUE to tradition, a ‘plan’ to ‘reset’ the country’s entire structure has come down like an epiphany from apparently ‘non-political’ quarters. The plan envisages creating multiple provinces and changing the country’s very tapestry — its geography, topography, demography, ethnic relations, resource distribution, power sharing, and broader political calculus. The situation raises critical questions.

Why new provinces? The interior minister, who announced the plan, hasn’t held forth on the reasoning or offered an acceptable justification for adopting such an extreme and hazardous course. However, he has mentioned bad governance, population implosion, and systemic failures as some of the causes. Nor are there any official authoritative studies proposing a close nexus between good governance and smaller administrative structures. In fact, the global landscape reveals a mixed pattern. Some countries have fewer or territorially larger constituent units, and yet they are stable, functional, even enviable. Others have multiple small units/ provinces, but are perennially afflicted with broken, inept and even failed political systems.

The factors that generally determine the performance and vitality of a state are the legitimacy and efficacy of its political system, the character and ability of its leadership, and the maturity and capacity of its institutions — not only to deliver better governance, but also to meet the continuing challenges thrown up by ever-changing societal and state imperatives. In revitalising the ‘failed’ political systems, we don’t know if the so-called plan contemplates these factors.

Who is demanding them? Interestingly, most of these ideas have originated outside regular political processes,........

© Dawn