Pakistan’s oversized provinces leave remote areas underserved, so smaller units could enable more responsive governance and region-specific economic policies.

Boundary changes alone risk added bureaucracy; reform must pair with real local-government devolution under Article 140A to avoid repeating incomplete post-18th Amendment decentralization.

An independent commission should design any restructuring around fiscal viability, capacity, and accessibility so more provinces strengthen rather than weaken the federation.

Anyone who has travelled from Panjgur to Quetta understands that administrative distance is not an abstract constitutional problem. These are not small administrative jurisdictions. More troublingly, 28 percent of children between five and sixteen remain outside school. These are national statistics, but behind them are intensely local failures. 

When a school lacks teachers in a remote district, Islamabad is rarely deciding whether the post will be filled. Usually, the relevant authority lies somewhere in the provincial machinery. That is why the debate over new provinces deserves more serious treatment than it normally receives. It should not be reduced to slogans about identity or electoral advantage. The real question is whether Pakistan’s existing provinces have simply become too large and administratively uneven to provide citizens with responsive government.

Geography still plays an uncomfortable role in determining opportunity. A........

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