There seems to be an ongoing public political spectacle, ironically within intra-leadership groups, projecting the merits and demerits and explaining the rationale for having more provinces in the country, or otherwise. Sadly, the posturing and arguments seem like aspirational push for greater control and longevity of the current system or, in the other case, the necessity to retain existing political space and larger provincial-based platforms. Little trouble is being taken to explain how exactly the change, or alternatively the status quo, would affect overall national governance and ultimately the Pakistani citizen — so much for the ‘one-page’ perception, a notion that has repeatedly met premature fall-outs in the brief but troubled political history of Pakistan!

The lobby rooting for an increased number of provinces opines that the current system has failed, despite being the main driving part of it all along, while the political parties looking to resist the move suffice by simplistically alluding instead to the use of local governments and bodies to improve delivery, despite failing to transparently prop up this option in the long history of their grip on power.

Examples often point to a similar exercise undertaken by our neighbour India, where its states were increased from 25 to 28 back in the year 2000, with the union territories, directly under the control of the centre, having gradually grown from five to eight. Although the number of dissections we have in mind significantly exceeds those undertaken by India, here are some pros and cons........

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