Pakistan today stands at a paradox. On the one hand, it boasts one of the youngest populations in South Asia, a resilient entrepreneurial class and a growing digital footprint. On the other, its governance infrastructure is creaking under the weight of outdated systems, fragile institutions and a deepening trust deficit between the state and its citizens.

Political instability, economic fragility and security concerns have all taken their toll, but beneath these symptoms lies a deeper structural challenge: a state struggling to govern, not just to rule. Without a radical rethink of our governance priorities, Pakistan risks permanent stagnation.

The country’s administrative architecture today reflects a fragmented, overstretched, and underperforming state. The 18th Amendment promised devolution and provincial empowerment, yet governance remains concentrated in centralised bureaucracies, operating through decades-old procedures, with little appetite for reform. The constitutional framework may have changed, but political and institutional behaviours have not.

While provinces have been granted greater legislative authority, actual control over fiscal resources, administrative autonomy, and public services remains uneven. The failure to institutionalise Provincial Finance Commissions (PFCs) means that even within the provinces, funds and functions remain tightly held at the top.

Local governments, the missing third tier, have been either suspended, dissolved or rendered toothless across most of Pakistan. This absence of grassroots governance is not accidental; it is the outcome of deliberate political choices to keep power and resources out of local hands.

Even at the federal level, critical........

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