Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have reached an agreement on the creation of new provinces, with leaders from both parties voicing support for the move during a television appearance.
Federal Minister for Defence Production Raza Hayat Hiraj said that new provinces will definitely be formed, adding that neither Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif nor Mohsin Naqvi are going anywhere, stressing that the Premier will himself create them.
PTI Chief Whip Malik Amir Dogar said that he agrees with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi that new provinces should be formed, noting that there is complete consensus on the creation of South Punjab and that new provinces should be formed on the basis of population, with South Punjab set to be the first.
During the first Pakistan Economic Summit in Islamabad last week, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that Pakistan’s current governance framework has collapsed and can no longer resolve the country’s issues, advocating for administrative reforming, including the establishment of new administrative units.
Naqvi commented on the limitations of the existing structure.
“The system we are living under has collapsed. You have been dragging this system for 70 years, and while we all want democracy, there are many forms within democracy. Problems cannot be solved through the current dispensation,” the interior minister said in unusually blunt remarks.
He maintained that the administrative structure requires public engagement to bring about change.
“If this system continues, we will still be sitting here a decade from now discussing the same issues. The only solution is to take [the matter of] administrative units, provinces or whatever you may call it, to the public,” he stated.
