Federalism exists on several planes simultaneously. A boundary that creates a majority in one area creates a minority at the same time.

The most powerful argument for a reorganization of Pakistan’s map is an ethical one. The Saraiki speaker in Rajanpur has rarely had a government which views his language as anything but a dialect. Karachi and Hyderabad contain a significant portion of the population of Sindh and, as MQM-P contends, accordingly have little control over issues of water, sanitation, and waste. To these groups, a new province offers not a clean-up but the possibility of a first majority.

This argument merits scrutiny rather than praise, because federalism exists on several planes simultaneously.

Consider the South Punjab idea in its most generous interpretation. Draw the line, and there is a Saraiki-speaking province. In it, right away, are Punjabi settlers of the canal colonies, Urdu-speaking urbanites of Multan and Bahawalpur, Balochis of the western districts, and migrants in the cities. Yesterday, they were part of a provincial majority. Today, they are minorities in a province created to respond to somebody else’s call for identity. Everything that has happened is simply a change in their relative position, which, in politics, is all that really counts.

The mirror image works no matter where the line is drawn. Split Sindh, and you get a predominantly urban province where Sindhis are minorities, and another, rural one, where Urdu-speakers are. Separate Hazara, and the Hindko-Pashto ratio is inverted in opposite directions at the same time. Every boundary defines not one category of people, but........

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