THERE is much talk of the ‘winds of change’, but where are they blowing from? Well-briefed sections of the media and well-connected cabinet ministers tell us that some form of administrative restructuring to create new provinces is inevitable, and that it may come sooner rather than later. We are told it is ‘the will of the people’ and that anyone who opposes it will be swept aside. One cannot help but wonder whether it is really the will of the people or that of the powers that be.

Curiously, while federal ministers belonging to the ruling PML-N deny any public knowledge of such a move, the PPP has vowed to resist the creation of new provinces. And there has been no debate on the issue in parliament or the provincial assemblies. Perhaps, as with the previous 26th and 27th Amendments, the draft is being prepared somewhere else, and lawmakers are expected simply to rubber-stamp it.

Speculation about an impending 28th amendment on administrative restructuring had been circulating for some time, but it was the interior minister’s public statement last month that confirmed that a change was in the offing. His remarks amounted to an indictment of the entire political order and a call for structural change. A statement by the military spokesman soon after gave further shape to the emerging plan.

Those statements triggered intense public debate over a plan whose contours remain obscure. All manner of suggestions — from the creation of new administrative units to devolution — are being floated. Yet even the political parties and federal ministers who adamantly support restructuring admit they have no clear framework for how it should be carried out.

The collapse of the system is the result of the........

© Dawn