It is the hoarding of power not its devolution that endangers a federation.

The Economist has dressed an old political suspicion in the sophisticated vocabulary of political analysis: that creating smaller provinces in Pakistan is an exercise by Establishment in “divide and rule”, designed to fragment political opposition, manufacture new political fiefdoms and ultimately weaken the federation.

It may seem a striking argument to some, but its apparent arguement conceals a fundamental fallacy: the confusion of dividing a nation with distributing power. The two are not synonymous. Indeed,the latter can be the surest defence against the former.

Switzerland stands as a magnificent rebuttal to the notion that smaller constituent units necessarily threaten national cohesion. With its 26 cantons and more than 2,000 communes, this small European country has demonstrated that political authority can be distributed without its national identity dissolving into a thousand competing fragments. Its citizens retain their common Swiss identity while exercising authority through their cantons and local institutions.

Switzerland is not a blueprint that Pakistan can simply photocopy. Its history, institutions and political culture are different. But its existence demolishes any universal proposition that smaller administrative units must inevitably weaken a country. Its lesson is simple: national unity does not require the geographical gigantism of constituent units; it requires institutions that make diverse communities willing participants in a common national enterprise.

A great tree does not fear the spreading of its branches. It draws strength from roots that bind them to a common trunk.

Why, then, should Pakistan treat the creation of additional provinces as an act of national dismemberment before examining whether such reform could make government more accessible, representation more equitable and accountability more effective?

The Economist’s argument also appears to suggest that because politicians might exploit provincial reorganisation for their own advantage, the reform itself must be suspect. This is a curious standard........

© Pakistan Observer